Helderberg Basin water pressure ‘within acceptable norms’ confirms municipality — residents confirm their showers disagree
The Helderberg Basin municipality has confirmed, in response to a formal complaint submitted by a residents’ association in March, that water pressure across the supply zone averages 2.1 bar, a figure it describes as falling within acceptable norms for a residential distribution network and which it arrived at by measuring pressure at points in the network that residents’ association chairperson Elmarie Joubert described, at the April meeting, as “not anyone’s actual house.”
Seven residents on the upper section of Parel Vallei hill, where the topography interacts with the distribution infrastructure in ways the municipality’s report does not address, confirmed that their pressure is sufficient to dampen a cloth slowly if you are patient, to fill a kettle in approximately the time it takes to read a short article and to produce from a shower head what one resident described as “more of an intention than a stream.” A bath, he said, remains theoretically possible but requires forward planning of the kind more commonly associated with major life events.
The municipality’s report noted that pressure complaints often reflect internal plumbing factors beyond the municipality’s jurisdiction and invited affected residents to have their private infrastructure assessed at their own cost. Elmarie said she had read that section of the report twice and found it “very creative.”
A further monitoring exercise is planned for the third quarter. It will measure pressure at the same points as the first exercise. The municipality said this would allow for comparative data. Elmarie said she looked forward to the comparison.
The residents on Parel Vallei hill said they would be having bucket showers in the meantime and did not require a report about it.
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