Hessequa Municipality supplies drinking water to the towns of Heidelberg, Slangrivier and Witsand provided by Overberg Water. During the past few months, Overberg Water has been experiencing problems at their water purification plant that causes brown water to end up in the reservoirs and reticulation network of the Municipality.
On 16 January 2022, the situation worsened and the Municipality requested Overberg Water to temporarily suspend the supply to the municipal reservoirs. Further investigation showed that the reservoir of Overberg Water currently stands at 20%, with the result that sludge ended up in the reticulation network. The Municipality’s Technical Department flushed the reticulation network of the affected areas and water quality was once again acceptable.
On Monday, 17 January 2022, the Municipality cleaned the reservoirs, after which Overberg Water also indicated that they would clean their reservoir on 18 January 2022. During these water outages, water trucks provide the community of Heidelberg with clean drinking water.
Hessequa Municipality apologizes for the inconvenience and thank residents for their understanding and would like to assure residents that every effort is being made to provide high quality water to the community.