City of Tshwane Highlights on News

Metro launches water security project with Danish help

The Tshwane metro and the second largest city in Denmark, Aarhus, have launched a three-year R33-million collaborative project to improve Pretoria’s water security.

The project was launched on Monday morning at the University of Pretoria.

During the launch, Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink said the purpose of the project was to help improve the metro’s capacity to manage its water resources.

“The partnership is a window of opportunity to learn best practices in water security and management from the Danish government,” he added.

“We know we face many water challenges in Pretoria, such as in Hammanskraal and other parts of Pretoria,” Brink said.

“Therefore, it is important that we work with other world-class cities and learn from them so that we can build a capital city that works for all its people.”

Brink said the two cities have agreed to collaborate on water management projects and on various methods and strategies to reduce non-revenue water losses, active leak detection and pipe preplacement prioritization.

Tshwane residents have their say on amendment of education legislations

“The committee welcomes the submissions made in Tshwane and assured participants that thorough consideration will be done to all oral and written submissions made during the public participation process.”

Tshwane parents and those in the educational profession have argued their concerns surrounding the Bella Bill at the weekend.

The majority of the voices did not agree with the sale of alcohol in schools and wanted the government to further rethink having learners register with the Department of Education for homeschooling.

Their voices were heard at the Mabopane Indoor sports centre on Saturday as part of three public hearings held in Gauteng over the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Bill.

Parts of Pretoria east without water due to multiple power failures

Meanwhile, mayor Cilliers Brink said there will be yet another five-day water tightness test that will take place from Friday, until Wednesday.

Multiple power failures at the Mapleton booster pumping station resulted in some parts of Pretoria East being without water.

Utilities MMC Themba Fosi assured residents that the matter was receiving urgent attention.

“We received a notice last night that the power had gone off again, which resulted in a total stoppage in pumping water,” a statement read.

The situation had led to many of Rand Water’s reservoir levels dropping significantly.

Fosi however, alluded that the water utility had alerted the metro that it was experiencing challenges in refilling its reservoirs.

Residents are likely to experience low water pressure to no water while reservoirs refill.

Fosi urged them to use water sparingly.

“We will monitor the situation and do what we can to mitigate potential shortages,’’ Fosi added.

Meanwhile, mayor Cilliers Brink said there will be yet another five-day water tightness test that will take place from Friday, until Wednesday.

“The outage will have a negative impact on Rand Water’s preparation efforts,” he said.

The metro urged residents to continue to limit their water usage so that it can work to fill reservoirs to ensure that it is at full capacity as of May 12.

“The city apologizes for the inconvenience and will keep working to resolve the ongoing water challenges in Pretoria East and surrounds.”

Source: Pretoria Rekord