Mayor’s newsletter for George Herald of 2 December 2021
The first week of office for the new Council has required focussing on the damage of the 22 November storm and flooding that coincided with the Council meeting to elect and inaugurate the office bearers. After the conclusion of the meeting the acting municipal manager and I joined the fire chief as night fell on a tour of areas where significant damage occurred.
I thought it might be worthwhile to provide some insight into the “behind the scenes” operations.
On Tuesday and Wednesday we concentrated on the Oewer Street 500mm pipe-burst that was precipitated by the floodwaters engulfing the southern bank of the Kat River. The contractors brought in an excavator to work on the unstable and muddy bank. Part of that repair required bringing in stone and gravel to provide a stable base for the replacement pipe and constructing gabions to protect the newly-laid pipe. At one stage, our new incident command vehicle was placed on the driveway of a private house. This was the base from where some decisions were being made on what tools and equipment had to be sourced to use in the muddy hole to ensure that the pipe jointing could take place smoothly.
With a key pipeline in the network out of use, it also appeared from the continuing water loss on the system that there was another breakage at a location that had not yet been detected. This meant that the lines had to be walked to ultimately locate the break in an isolated wooded area. At the same time there are key roleplayers in the dairy industry who are critically reliant on their daily water supply being delivered within certain pressure tolerances. All available water tankers, including some being rented in or borrowed, were being used to give our residents access to much needed water.
Once the pipelines had been repaired the emphasis shifted to refilling George’s 900 km water pipeline network and the various reservoirs while also removing air-locks. On Friday morning some critical decisions had to be made to balance water availability and pressure in the network to ensure that most areas across George had water without reservoirs running empty. This balancing process required constant adjustment and management over the weekend.
In simple terms George can treat up to 40 Ml (40 million litres) per day with daily usage normally at 30-31 Ml. The outage that we had experienced over Monday through Thursday had depleted our reservoirs and the minimum buffer of 48 hours’ supply. The daily difference between water treated and used is the equivalent of 6 hours’ supply and painstakingly helps to restore the necessary reserves and pressure levels day by day.
Mayor’s newsletter for George Herald of 2 December 2021
The first week of office for the new Council has required focussing on the damage of the 22 November storm and flooding that coincided with the Council meeting to elect and inaugurate the office bearers. After the conclusion of the meeting the acting municipal manager and I joined the fire chief as night fell on a tour of areas where significant damage occurred.
I thought it might be worthwhile to provide some insight into the “behind the scenes” operations.
On Tuesday and Wednesday we concentrated on the Oewer Street 500mm pipe-burst that was precipitated by the floodwaters engulfing the southern bank of the Kat River. The contractors brought in an excavator to work on the unstable and muddy bank. Part of that repair required bringing in stone and gravel to provide a stable base for the replacement pipe and constructing gabions to protect the newly-laid pipe. At one stage, our new incident command vehicle was placed on the driveway of a private house. This was the base from where some decisions were being made on what tools and equipment had to be sourced to use in the muddy hole to ensure that the pipe jointing could take place smoothly.
With a key pipeline in the network out of use, it also appeared from the continuing water loss on the system that there was another breakage at a location that had not yet been detected. This meant that the lines had to be walked to ultimately locate the break in an isolated wooded area. At the same time there are key roleplayers in the dairy industry who are critically reliant on their daily water supply being delivered within certain pressure tolerances. All available water tankers, including some being rented in or borrowed, were being used to give our residents access to much needed water.
Once the pipelines had been repaired the emphasis shifted to refilling George’s 900 km water pipeline network and the various reservoirs while also removing air-locks. On Friday morning some critical decisions had to be made to balance water availability and pressure in the network to ensure that most areas across George had water without reservoirs running empty. This balancing process required constant adjustment and management over the weekend.
In simple terms George can treat up to 40 Ml (40 million litres) per day with daily usage normally at 30-31 Ml. The outage that we had experienced over Monday through Thursday had depleted our reservoirs and the minimum buffer of 48 hours’ supply. The daily difference between water treated and used is the equivalent of 6 hours’ supply and painstakingly helps to restore the necessary reserves and pressure levels day by day.