Sunday, 12 June 2011
Well, last Sunday was the “official” switch on of the pipe, Neil did an excellent job giving our visitors a bit of background on the water supply and the trials and tribulations of the whole project. For the occasion I quickly switched the pipe so we had water running by the storage tanks.
![](http://test.vanstadens.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/IMG_7811.jpg "\\\\"\\\\\"IMG_7811\\\\\"\\\\"/")
Ellie baked a special cake for the occasion depicting the pipeline and the various points of interest and Jenny supplied the bubbly so we had a nice party afterwards.
As the pond was full and we did not want to waste the water we turned the valve off at the old nursery so we could find out how serious the water loss in the section between the two valves is, so yesterday, six days later we read the meter again and to our horror saw that we had used another 55 cubic meters. Fortunately it had also rained more than 100mm during the week and the dam is overflowing so no real harm done but we were keen to find where all this water had gone. We walked the entire length of the pipe with not a leak in sight so we were very puzzled until Ellie showed me the puddle by the railway which looked very much like a false alarm and on the way back across the meadow I happened to stumble upon the spot where the water bubbled out of the soil.
This of course means a little more of digging and sorting out, after the copious rain we do not have to do it too soon but we didn’t have the tools with us to switch the main valve off so it is quite important to get back there quite soon.