A glass jar containing murky water is placed on the boardroom table at Eskort Limited. The pair of uThukela District Municipality staff members who are seated at the table look knowingly at each other and it is obvious that they already have a reason why the water is brownish.
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Eskort Limited general manager Wynand Nel tells them that this is the quality of water that came out of the meat processing plant’s tanks on Thursday morning.
The uThukela staff immediately explain that the reservoir feeding the factory had run dry after a problem with the valves. Once the water refilled, silt at the bottom of the reservoir was stirred up, resulting in the murky appearance.
Emphasising that Eskort Limited is a food manufacturing plant that is responsible for providing safe food to the country, Mr Nel said that the company will be sending a sample of the water to a laboratory for testing.
He added that 400,000 litres of water had to be dumped on Thursday morning and one of the processing plants had to be stopped.
“What do we do? Close the plant? We can’t go on like this. If we are getting brown water from the taps, how can we guarantee safe food?” questioned Mr Nel.
He called on uThukela District Municipality to provide a tangible plan for a way forward, saying that the company could install a filtration system but that the district municipality should bear the cost.
“We want an action plan about how you plan to supply clean water to Eskort. There needs to be communication; we need to be on the same level,” appealed Mr Nel.
Jennifer Wallace from the Ladysmith Chamber of Commerce & Industry, which has taken the Estcourt Chamber of Commerce under its wing, was also present at the meeting.
She offered to assist with preparing the letter that will be sent to the chief financial officer and general manager at uThukela District Municipality. She also stressed to the pair of uThukela staff that communication is key and suggested a WhatsApp group with interested business managers and district municipality staff that can serve as an information sharing tool.
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