The duration of the repairs to the Trident Plant at the Parys Water Purification Plant is expected to be eight weeks if there are no unforeseen circumstances.
This is according to Ngwathe Munici-pality’s spokesperson, Mr Steve Naale, who responded on Parys’ water crisis on Monday night.
He said Sedibeng Water had been appointed to embark on structural reforms and repair of the trident plant. He added that a service provider had started with the repairs last week.
“However, it also emerged that the other part of the water plant, which was built ages ago, was never meant to cater for the expansion of the town. This has added to the stress on the general water purification process.”
According to the statement, the team will keep the office of the municipal manager updated on their work and the Mayoral Water Services task team shall continue to monitor the progress. “Formal communication will be sent out to the community and various stakeholders through the municipal communications unit.”
According to Henk Coetzer, the acting director of technical services, the contractor will work seven days a week to finish the refurbishment and upgrade the water plant in the shortest possible time.
As an interim measure, 64 JoJo tanks have been deployed while the repairs are being done, Naale said. Sedibeng Water has supplied eight water tankers, besides the five tankers the municipality is leasing, he added.
“As the water that was distributed to the communities had come from the already reduced water supply, Rand Water agreed that Ngwathe could draw water from the Rand Water clean water storage facility in Sasolburg for the next three months. This should be more than enough time,” he said.
“We have also noted the president’s announcements on the Coronavirus outbreak. The water team will, therefore, closely monitor the refilling of JoJo tanks with clean water and ensure hygiene and fewer health hazards. The water that is being supplied through water tankers is clean and safe,” Naale assured the public.
Electricity:
Regarding the electricity supply, he said the electrical team continues to work with the water team to ensure rapid response to electricity outages that cause delays in the water purification process. However, “load shedding continues to have a bearing on all these processes,” he said.
As preventative measures, the technical team will switch off all municipal circuit breakers at the main substation if Eskom is to implement load shedding.
“Once Eskom switches on, the electrical team will switch on breakers one by one, not to exceed 1000 amperage demand from Eskom. This will assist in limiting the damage to equipment as was seen last week. The situation caused residents to be without electricity for hours on end. In essence, this means power will be restored some 60 minutes later than Eskom’s restored time.”
Naale added that the office of the municipal manager had taken disciplinary measures against a municipal worker who was allegedly contributing negatively to water distribution at the water purification plant.
“The water team is finalising consultations with councillors on the location and placement of temporary JoJo tanks. They will communicate accordingly,” he said.
