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The planned Majuba tie-in and maintenance outage on the bulk water pipeline supplying Kriel in Emalahleni Local Municipality is well underway and proceeding according to plan. This outage started on Monday, 23 February and is planned to end 9 March 2015. All prior preparations and good planning and coordination in this regard have led to a smooth start and current operation of the outage so far.

Work on the two identified leaks and the bypass have been completed and the pipes tested. Rehabilitation on both sides has been done. Water supply will be restored to the community of Kriel according to plan.

For the duration of the outage the communities are supplied with water through strategically placed jojo tanks within a reasonable distance.

The Department of Water and Sanitation is performing maintenance work on the pipeline, installing new valves and replacing leaking pipes with new ones as Eskom is busy with the construction of a railway line from Ermelo to the Majuba Power Station. The railway line crosses the Department of Water and Sanitation’s (DWS) pipeline between Rietspruit reservoir and Davel.

The DWS, Emalahleni Local Municipality and all stakeholders involved request the continued patience and cooperation from all who are affected. Thus far all indications are that the planned outage period will not be exceeded. Please consider everyone in the supply system; make storage preparations if possible and use available water sparingly and optimally.

The department apologises for the inconvenience caused; however as we indicated before, this planned outage is important for maintenance and sustainability of the infrastructure.

Issued by Department of Water and Sanitation