By Petronella Sibeene
WINDHOEK
A pipe burst along Independence Avenue and disrupted the flow of traffic, causing a serious jam in downtown Windhoek as motorists negotiated their way around the closed portion of the road.
The water burst, which occurred at about 08h00 on Friday opposite the police station near Thuringerhof Hotel, restricted traffic flow along Independence Avenue, Robert Mugabe Avenue, Banhof Street and Van der Heeven Street for the entire day. Repairs to the caved-in tarmac were only completed at night.
City of Windhoek Public Relations Officer, Elizabeth Sibindi, said most of the water pipes within the city are more than 25 years old and therefore need to be replaced.
She added that over the years the city has expanded substantially and that has put tremendous pressure on the water pipes given the increased demand.
This year the city made a provision of N$5 million for a maintenance programme to replace 17 km of subterranean water pipelines.
Another N$1.2 million was provided to cater for emergency situations such as pipe bursts that have become a normal occurrence in Windhoek.
“A tender for annual replacement of the city-wide old water pipes was advertised last week in newspapers in order to commence the replacement work subject to budget limitations,” she said. Sibindi said no residential areas were affected. The city apologised for the inconvenience caused by the pipe burst.