The City’s issued a precautionary ‘boil notice’ across parts of Cape Town after power cuts caused a fault at the Faure plant.

Tap water in parts of Cape Town is currently discoloured.

The City’s advised residents of affected suburbs to boil their water before drinking it or using it for food preparation and cooking “until further notice”.

It says the problem is the result of a technical fault at the Faure Water Treatment Plant caused by ongoing power cuts.

“… recent phases of load-shedding caused limited operational hours of the sludge handling process. This part of the treatment process cannot be augmented by generator capacity due to high energy demand.”

The affected areas are primarily south of the N2.

They reach from Strand through Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain, Philippi to Plumstead and down into the Southern suburbs as far as about Muizenburg.

Click here to see the detailed list of the affected suburbs.

The City gives three options to treat discoloured water:

– Boil the water for at least one minute, allow it to cool down and store it in clean, sanitised and sealed containers.

– Use household bleach (like Jik) to disinfect water. The World Health Organisation recommends adding 5 millilitres (1 teaspoon) of unperfumed household bleach to 25 litres of water. Let the water stand for at least 30 minutes before using it.

– Use water disinfection tablets. Follow the instructions prescribed by the respective manufacturers to ensure the safety of the water for drinking purposes.

The City says supply from the Faure plant has been stopped, and the affected areas are being fed water from Blackheath Reservoir.

Water quality in this part of the supply network is expected to normalise over the next few days as it works to resolve the problem.

This article first appeared on CapeTalk : Tap water discoloured? Boil your water until fault is fixed says City

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Originally Appeared Here