Empty taps: Residents want answers

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) aptly coined the water situation in Polokwane in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner when he said “Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink”.

With isolated instances of water shortages during the festive season, residents welcomed the new year with days and even weeks of dry taps, while the dam levels in the Limpopo catchment areas slowly but surely recovered.

On Monday morning, the level of the Potgieter Street reservoir was at 5%, while the 50 Ml and two 30 Ml Krugersburg reservoirs were all at 0%.

The Ebenezer Dam stands at 38,3%. “This is a sharp rise from 26,2% the previous week.

WHO IS TO BLAME?

The bottom line of the situation is, however, that although water is available at the city’s resources, the water does not reach the consumers and Polokwane Municipality puts the blame squarely on the shoulders of Lepelle Northern Water (LNW) as the bulk supplier, and Eskom and Tzaneen Municipality as suppliers of electricity to the extraction points and pump stations.

In the aftermath of cyclone Eloise, Spokesperson for the Polokwane Municipality, Thipa Selala last Wednesday attributed the short supply of water to the power disruptions in the Tzaneen area.

“The challenges started over the weekend due to electrical challenges as a result of the storm in the Tzaneen area.

There has been constant stoppages of the Ebenezer and Olifantspoort plants,” Selala explained and added that there has been consistent supply throughout December. “There has also been a plan for high lying areas to try and relieve the situation and that plan is working,” Selala explained.

Later last Wednesday, Selala said that reservoir levels in Polokwane have not shown any improvement as a result of challenges experienced by LNW’s Ebenezer Plant.

WHAT DOES LNW SAY:

LNW Marketer/Media Liaison Officer, Yolande Nel said that the challenges in delivering bulk water to the Polokwane Municipality are complex, but still being addressed head-on to enable LNW in conjunction with Polokwane Municipality to deliver an excellent service to its stakeholders, and the communities it serves.

“These challenges include high water demands, ageing infrastructure and the need to upgrade the schemes servicing the city with an ever-growing population, low dam levels, loadshedding issues and vandalism. Last week alone, two leaks were reported as a result of vandalism.

“These are indicators of challenges regarding water supply provisioning which are mainly as a result of demands exceeding supply. While attending to the issues, a third leak was discovered due to ageing infrastructure,” Nel said.

“Challenges in the provision of bulk water supply to Polokwane the past few days were posed by the aftermath of flooding at the Olifantspoort Scheme catchment area, resulting in the quality of raw water being very poor and complex to treat, affecting the quality of water to be supplied by the plant. Due to the flood conditions the Olifantspoort Scheme could only yield about 49 Mega Litres (Ml) per day instead of the usual 60 Ml per day.

This challenge is seasonal and expected during flood conditions.

Olifantspoort has been back in normal operation since 27 January.

Around this time operations at the Ebenezer Scheme have also been affected by electricity outages along the line from the Greater Tzaneen Municipality.

This was impacted due to trees falling onto power lines during the tropical storm.”

According to Nel, it was reported late last week that the Ebenezer Scheme was experiencing unusually high raw water turbidity and as a result the purification rate had to be reduced to maintain water quality. Three pumps were being run at 375 l/s as opposed to 450 l/s.

Nel further explained that until recently the Ebenezer Dam levels have been very low and this played a role in water provision to the city.

The situation resulted in the Department of Water and Sanitation imposing a 20% restriction on LNW’s extraction from this source, which has largely affected supply from the scheme.

However, due to the current rains, dam levels have significantly improved.

While good rains have been experienced, restrictions are still in place.

Due to low dam levels and restrictions, the scheme can supply only 35 Ml/day instead of the 44 Ml/day.

“The issue of ageing infrastructure had been assessed during the past financial year and it should be noted that a rehabilitation programme is already under implementation. In conclusion we appeal for patience from the consumers,” Nel said.