Grey District Acting CE Paul Pretorius has unreservedly apologised for aA critical water break yesterday left the Rapahoe/Dunollie area without water for seven hours.
"This was not only hugely inconvenient for those communities but also highlighted serious issues in our communication and the fact that the infrastructure involved needs renewal as a matter of urgency," Mr Pretorius said.
A water break occurred in Rapahoe around 2.45pm. Council's Contractor responded virtually immediately and confimred the break. As soon as the Contractors isolated the break area, the main supply along the Rapahoe Strait also broke. When they closed the valves to be able to repair the second break, a third break occurred in Dunollie. These subsequent breaks were not reported to Council until 7.15pm.
The water supply was restored at 10.20pm.
"While the inital outage was posted as an alert on Council’s website at 4pm, the message wasn’t posted on Council’s Facebook page until 8pm. We are urgently reviewing our systems to ensure we are adequately communicating critical alerts in a timely manner, on the correct channels and in a way that is accessible and useful for all our communities.
"This not only confirms serious shortcomings in our communication but has highlighted the fact that the water supply line in question is at the end of its useful life. The pressure changes during isolation have likley caused additional breaks that will need to be addressed."
Mr Pretorius confirmed Council is in the process of assessing the cost of replacing the water supply in question and will be in a position to report back on the timelines involved soon. In the meantime, the team is taking immediate steps to improve Council's communcation network.
"I unreservedly apologise for the time it took to restore the water supply and the lack of communication with the public. The event was a harsh reminder that we have to do better in the future," he said.
