Water pump and Sewer not working

[kirbykips]

I swear this is frustrating. I started a game and set up a water pump at the front of the river and a sewer at the bottom, then I connected them with the coal power plant using power lines, and finally I connected the plants with pipes and unpaused the game.

However, although the pipes have green and blue flowing through them, the game says the water pump and sewer are inactive.
Sometimes, one of them will be active for five seconds and then go inactive even if the electricity is clearly connected to them.
I witnessed my pump turn blue and then go inactive and the sewer never activated.
I've done everything from removing a pump or sewer and replacing it, connecting more pipes, and even removing pipes, but nothing gets them to work.
I got them to work before, after dealing with this issue for about an hour, but I had to restart the game and all the methods I used before aren't working.

What am I doing wrong here? The systems are connected to a river and yes, the sewer is downstream from the pump. I've checked the electricity and all the power lines are active, so they should be getting electricity.
I'm trying not to waste too much money at the beginning trying to get these things to work.

[Metacritical]

not sure about the sewer but intake pumps do this when they suck up so much water that temporarily there isn't any water left at the source so become inactive due to lack of water. this is particularly troublesome when the water source is very shallow.

[mbutton15]

Could be there's a section of city not connected to the main power grid so power fluctuates in regions furthest from power sources. You could try putting a wind turbine next to each pump just to make sure power isn't the issue.

[ancienthighway]

There's one map that came with Mass Transit that has a small river available, but it is very shallow and dries up fast if a pump is placed on it. Solution, use water towers.

The drain pipes won't work if there's no water in the pipes.

I have to ask, even though I'll be mocked for it, do you have pipes connecting to your zoned areas? A pipe between the pump and the drain and no where else is useless.

[kirbykips]

Originally posted by mbutton15:

Could be there's a section of city not connected to the main power grid so power fluctuates in regions furthest from power sources. You could try putting a wind turbine next to each pump just to make sure power isn't the issue.

So I actually figured out that they won't activate until they are connected to buildings. I kind of wish the game told me that's why they weren't active because I was fiddling around for an hour figuring out the cause of the problem.

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by kirbykips:

So I actually figured out that they won't activate until they are connected to buildings. I kind of wish the game told me that's why they weren't active because I was fiddling around for an hour figuring out the cause of the problem.

Heh, of course they have to be connected to buildings that require their services in order to function...
If nobody is using drinking water or creating sewage, what reason is there for them to work? ;)

[imagine wagons]

im having the same problem but they just quit and stop working and i cant get new ones to work eather help!

[kirbykips]

Originally posted by bradtodabone:

im having the same problem but they just quit and stop working and i cant get new ones to work eather help!

So I realized that what you HAVE to do is have the pumps connected to buildings. Once the buildings exist, the pump and sewer start working. They won't work until they have something to pump through.
Wish I could set this as the answer.

[kirbykips]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

Originally posted by kirbykips:

So I actually figured out that they won't activate until they are connected to buildings. I kind of wish the game told me that's why they weren't active because I was fiddling around for an hour figuring out the cause of the problem.

Heh, of course they have to be connected to buildings that require their services in order to function...
If nobody is using drinking water or creating sewage, what reason is there for them to work? ;)

You're definitely right. But still, they could have at least said they were ready or give some indication that they were set up correctly.