The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

THE Water and Sewerage Corporation confirmed on Tuesday that a major failure on a 21-inch water transmission main at the southern end of Robertha Avenue (Ridgeland Park West) has interrupted water supply for scores of residents across New Providence.

While the circumstances that led to the main being severely damaged are still unknown, a statement on the corporation’s Facebook page around 10pm on Monday reported the major failure. As a result, motorists in the area encountered severe flooding.

“There has been no interruption in our water supply thus far and teams are presently on site making arrangements to commence the repairs later this evening. It is anticipated that these repairs will commence at approximately 10PM this evening and this will result in low pressure and/or no water to parts of Central, Southern and Eastern New Providence,” the statement said.

A later statement said that the repair works had commenced at about 10pm on Monday as planned “and were completed around 3.30am this morning. However, once we resumed our water supply, another failure developed which required us to remobilise our teams to the site. The repair of the second failure was completed around 9.30am this morning and we have recommenced our water supply; however, it must be noted that it will take a few hours to fully restore normal water supply to all affected customers. Full system restoration is now anticipated by 12noon today.”

Despite the corporation’s efforts, the water supply had not been fully restored in many areas on Tuesday afternoon.

The corporation had been working to replace the existing 21-inch transmission main on Robertha Avenue since early this month and was scheduled to be completed by late March.