Taps Still Dry in Tshwane: Equestria Water Outage Drags On After Maintenance Delays

A routine water maintenance job in Tshwane has turned into a multi-day headache for Equestria residents, with no end in sight.

What was meant to be a straightforward operation replacing a valve and pipe fittings, has become a drawn-out saga of connection failures, wet concrete, and frustrated residents left without water for more than 28 hours.

The City of Tshwane had scheduled the work for Wednesday, promising to restore supply by 4pm the same day. But technical hiccups, poor planning, and repeated setbacks have meant taps in the eastern Pretoria suburb are still dry.

Not the First Delay, and Likely Not the Last

DA ward councillor Jacqui Uys, who previously served as Tshwane’s MMC for Finance, has been keeping residents updated through the night. But her messages have delivered more disappointment than relief.

“There have been multiple failures on site,” she said. “One of the new connections came loose shortly after water was restored, which forced the team to shut everything off again.”

Residents also complained that water from the emergency tanker wasn’t safe to drink, compounding an already frustrating situation.

Project Aimed at Preventing Pipe Bursts

Ironically, the maintenance was part of a larger initiative to improve infrastructure. Uys explained that the city was installing pressure valves to regulate the water network and prevent pipe bursts — a long-term fix intended to protect Tshwane’s aging water infrastructure.

But the execution, she says, left much to be desired.

“This project was badly planned. Eventualities weren’t accounted for, and I’ve already begun asking questions about how the contractor was appointed,” said Uys, hinting at larger governance issues within the city.

What Went Wrong?

On-site teams battled with more than just loose connections. They faced structural issues in the valve chamber, where concrete appeared unstable. Workers reportedly used a special plastic cement designed for wet environments to speed up curing time, but the damp conditions continued to interfere with the work.

As of Thursday evening, the pipes were still being adjusted, and the leak from the failed connection had not been fully resolved.

“The system can’t stabilise because we’re losing too much water. It might be necessary to shut off the supply again completely to allow repairs to hold,” Uys said.

Public Patience Wearing Thin

Social media in Pretoria East lit up with posts from residents demanding answers. “Two days with no water and no timeline? Tshwane, this is not service delivery,” wrote one resident on Facebook. Another asked why repeated failures during planned maintenance seem to be the norm, not the exception.

Some residents have called for a broader audit of contractors involved in city infrastructure projects, citing this outage as the latest in a pattern of costly, disruptive, and mismanaged maintenance efforts.

No End in Sight

As of Friday morning, the City of Tshwane had not provided a firm timeline for full restoration. The silence is deafening for many residents who are now turning to bottled water, friends’ homes, or unreliable tankers just to get through the day.

For a community that was promised a quick fix, the ongoing outage is more than an inconvenience, it’s a symbol of what many feel is a city struggling to maintain basic services.

In the words of one frustrated resident: “We don’t want apologies. We want water.”