POLOKWANE – Review recently asked the municipality for a report on how the water supply system worked and whether the reservoirs that supplied water to the city were sufficient for the growing city.
Based on these queries the municipality hosted a media tour of the Olifants-poort plant.
At a media briefing, the CEO of Lepelle Northern Water, Phineas Legodi, confirmed that the city’s reservoirs and infrastructure had not kept up with the growth of the city and the mayor, Thembi Nkadimeng, agreed indirectly.
“Our planning does in-volve growth, but the growth surpasses the planning ar-ticulated earlier on. In the 2015/16 financial year we will replace asbestos pipes as old as 60 years and we want to build a water purification plant so that we are able to circulate and resuscitate water for re-circulation,” Nkadimeng said.
Legodi said the process would start in April.
“In our engagements with the municipality and department of water and sanitation, it was decided we would start with the replacement of asbestos pipes in the next financial year, which is in April. This project will stretch over the next three financial years.
“The current infrastructure is of such that it is only meant to supply for a limited number of people, and apart from it being old, it is not enough to provide for the population of Polokwane,” he said.
On the matter of load shedding being one of the reasons for the recent water shortage in the city, Nkadimeng said the municipality and Eskom had agreed on continuous power supply to the plants, which would ensure no disruptions of water supply to areas.
Frans Rousseau, a representative of Eskom, said given the unique challenges, Eskom, Lepelle Northern Water, and the Polokwane Municipality as a group reached several mutually agreed conclusions.
Legodi said Lepelle Northern Water was looking at alternative energy generation sources most suitable for their plants, so that when load shedding was implemented, this could be used.
“Even though water supply has been restored as a short term measure, we are still at a critical stage.
“We urge communities to use water wisely and sparingly. Avoid filling swimming pools, necessary washing of cars and watering of gardens,” said Nkadimeng.
During the tour Lepelle Northern Water explained how the water supply system worked at the Olifantspoort plant:
• Water is pumped from the river.
• The water goes through a desanding pump, which removes any sand from the water that was pumped from the river.
• The water is pumped to the divisional channels where the first chemicals are introduced to help keep impurities together which will make it easy to remove. At the division point, the water is divided into three channels.
• The water is moved from the division channels to sedimentation points, which is also divided into three, primary, secondary and tertiary. The dirt sinks down and settles and is removed by sludge valves. The clear water is pumped to the filters.
• At the filtering process more chemicals are added to kill germs.
• The purified water is pumped to the contact tanks where chlorine is added to kill bacteria and make the water suitable for drinking.
• From the contact tanks the water is pumped to the high lift pumps that pump water to the reservoirs that supply water to various areas.
