Drought drives Rustenburg to brink of crisis

The platinum mining town of Rustenburg in North West has been gripped by a devastating drought, to the extent that local authorities have had no choice but to implement water restrictions to avoid day-zero.

Yesterday the Rustenburg local municipality met with mining companies and other big water-guzzling industry players to explain the situation and announce the details of the restrictions.

Spokesperson David Magae said the water restrictions were implemented yesterday, with water valves shut between 5pm and 5am the following day. This will continue until the system recovers.

“Currently, the command reservoirs have no spare capacity, no available water which can be used as contingency supply to residents, businesses and industries in the event that normal storage supply is depleted,” he explained.

He said due to lack of rainfall in the Rustenburg area after winter, coupled with the daily consumption of water by private and commercial clients, the water restrictions were necessary as any delay in the water management plan may result in the depletion of water supply to residents.

Magae said as access to water is a human rights matter, as outlined by the Water Services Act, they have communicated a clear water management restriction plan to representatives of affected and relevant stakeholders.

Rustenburg is home to some of the country’s biggest platinum mining operations – Impala, Glencore, Anglo American – and Rainbow Chicken Limited, which has a massive plant in Rustenburg and relies heavily on water due to daily slaughtering of thousands of chickens.

Magae said the restrictions will impact on the industries’ production but said it was in everyone’s interest to use water sparingly to avoid dams, which he said were below 50%, running dry.

He said there was no rain in sight and that they have had to take action due to pressure on consumption by the industries.

“At the rate we are going, we will deplete our water reserves so we have to act responsibly to avoid a situation where we reach day-zero,” Magae said.

“The water restrictions will also impact negatively on the access to water by commercial clients or industries,  thus affecting production.”

– siphom@citizen.co.za

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