The communities of Kriel in Emalahleni Local Municipality will be without water as the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) is conducting maintenance work on its pipeline between Rietspruit reservoirs and Davel.

The maintenance work forms part of a pipeline deviation project the department has undertaken in order to move the pipeline out of the path of a railway line Eskom is building from Ermelo to the Majuba Power Station.

The deviation of the structure has been approved by the department’s engineers who will be involved with the quality control during the construction phase.

This also provides an opportunity for the department to do maintenance work on the pipeline.

The Department says it has already started with the outage which is scheduled for the period of 23 February 2015 to 09 March 2015.

During the course of this outage, the communities of Kriel in Emalahleni Local Municipality will be affected as they get bulk raw water supply from this pipeline.

The Local municipality will communicate the various areas where the communities will receive water from water tankers.

The department and Eskom believe that the outage period will not be exceeded, says department spokesperson Sputnik Ratau.

“All those who will be affected are implored to consider everyone in the supply system, to make storage preparations if possible and use available water sparingly and optimally,” he adds.