By yesterday people around the city were running helter skelter in search of water but found none. Travellers at the main bus rank were shocked to find the public toilets closed. Most eating houses and pubs were no places to visit due to rising levels of stench.
By the afternoon the Swaziland Water Services Corporation was distributing water around Msunduza and surrounding areas. City Council Public Relations Officer Bongani Dlamini said the cause of the dislocation was still being studied by engineers contracted by SWSC.
However, he said he noticed that the pipe may have been leaking for sometime because the water appeared to have been silting slowly washing away the soil around it. As a result, on Wednesday night there was a cave-in and the pipe finally burst.
Water experts on sight yesterday morning said it would take more than a week to solve the fault because the asbestos pipe had to be substituted with an aluminum one.
He said there were aluminum pipes at their Matsapha depot but those were of 550mm instead of the 600mm diameter. This, therefore, means they had to fabricate either end of the 36 metre pipe to cover the missing link that will later be joined to the 600mm one.
Dlamini expressed concern that the city would be adversely affected but hoped that SWSC would provide temporary solutions while the matter was being solved.
Swazi Observer
Post published in: News