Cloudy water safe to drink
Community members of Bela-Bela raised their concerns about the safety of the town’s drinking water. The brown and often murky water that has been running through the taps in parts of the town and the water shortages are of great concern for ratepayers.
Die Pos met with Peter Moloto, Head of Communication at Bela-Bela Municipality, regarding the community’s concerns. He stated without a doubt that there are no safety issues with Bela-Bela’s drinking water,
“I drink water from the taps and as a municipality, it is our duty to ensure that the community is kept safe,” said Moloto.
Moloto stated that the municipality is facing challenges with the town’s infrastructure. Most of the pipes are old and often pipe bursts occur when the pressure is increased.
“Every time a pipe burst, there will be brown water in some of the taps.”
The municipality is working on solutions to resolve these types of problems. However, the lack of funds and a constrained budget create obstacles.
Moloto encourages the community to continue to report problems so that the municipality can fix the problem to the best of its ability.
After last year’s water shortages, the municipality worked tirelessly with the ward councilors to find a solution to decrease water-shedding. One of the major issues was the generators that were not up to standard and were out of order most of the time.
“Fortunately, we have both generators up and running and a backup generator is in place for when load-shedding strikes in phases five and six,” said Moloto.
This has improved the water levels, and the water restriction was curbed.
According to Jee-Dee Cloete, Ward Councillor for Freedom Front Plus (FF+) there is a vast improvement, but the infrastructure is still not up to par.
The Department of Water and Sanitation released the Blue Drop status report on December 5 2023, where Bela-Bela scored 60,25% for water quality. Moloto said that the municipality is pleased with the status because various processes need to be followed, testing of the water in the reservoirs and assessing the water treatment plants must adhere to strict rules.
Die Pos will continue to report on the matter.
