VRYHEID has seen its fair share of water issues in recent times, from contaminated water, then no water, then intermittent water supply and even sewage flowing directly into the town’s main source of water.
The latter is an ongoing concern and has been under the scrutiny of consumer watchdog, AfriForum, since September last year.
“The problems with the functionality of the treatment plant was discovered last year around September/October,” states AfriForum Vryheid’s Chairman, Andrè van der Walt, who has been keeping a close eye on the situation. “That was also when the Engineer’s Report on it was requested by ZDM…”
“The latest problem with the pump was discovered about three weeks ago and was fixed last week. However, the engineering report requires a complete refurbishment and there is no money for that. At this stage, nobody can say where they are going to find the money for this repair.”
While the pump at the treatment works has been repaired and is operating, sewage is no longer flowing directly into the dam.
However, a test carried out on the inflow into the sewage treatment works as well as the outflow by AfriForum has revealed an alarmingly high E-Coli count.
“So, although solids have been removed,” adds van der Walt, “the quality of the water flowing into Klipfontein is far from normal…”
AbaQulusi Municipality’s Media Liaison, Arnold Ramodibe, attempted to find out what the municipality’s plan of action is for dealing with the E-coli matter. However, given the recent resignation of the Manager of Technical Services, Wandile Dlamini, as well as the absence of a Director of Technical Services, his search returned somewhat fruitless.
Ramodibe has requested that we allow very recently appointed Portfolio Committee Chairperson, Cllr Martin Mtshali, time to settle into the position and he is confident that a solution will be attained.
In the August 25 edition of the Vryheid Herald, the headline incorrectly stated that the high level of E-coli was in the drinking water. This is not the case, as stated within the article, the high level of E-coli was found to be present in the outflow into Klipfontein Dam. We apologise for the misleading headline.
AfriForum’s Andrè van der Walt conducted tests on the drinking water on May 26 this year and found no trace of E-coli to be present.
