POLOKWANE – The Mayor John Mpe says the Department of Water and Sanitation has made available a budget of R1.4b to fund the upgrading of the Olifantspoort and Ebenezer bulk water schemes.
Mpe spoke during a media briefing at the Peter Mokaba Sports Complex this morning (February 1) and provided an update on water provision within the city.
Numerous challenges, which included dysfunctional pumps at the Olifantspoort Plant operated by Lepelle Northern Water (LNW), left customers without reliable water supply for a prolonged time in 2022.
This resulted in outcry from residents and even led to protests to the Polokwane Municipality over the ongoing water crisis.
Read more: Polokwane water crisis: Mayor puts plans in place
Mpe said issues on challenges that hampered provision were escalated to the Ministry of Water and Sanitation in September 2022 for their intervention.
He added that the upgrade to the two water schemes will commence in June 2023 with plans and designs to be completed this month (February).
“The Polokwane Municipality has been actively involved as one of the biggest beneficiaries in the two bulk water schemes,” he said.
These plans form part of the municipality’s medium to long term interventions.
Mpe added that LNW approached the department to release R422m to commence with the immediate works on refurbishment of the treatment plant, pump stations and part of the Specon pipeline that is continuously failing.
“The different work packages will commence in April 2023,” he said.
Other highlights:
Water tankers
Due to water provision challenges faced by the municipality, Mpe said it has become more essential to employ additional water tanker drivers to assist the current incumbents for continued service provision.
“Council appointed 10 additional water tanker operators in December 2022 and the additional drivers will add to the existing team and work on rotation to ensure that residents are attended to timeously,” he said.
Mpe added that eight additional water tankers would be procured which would add to the 32 tankers already in its fleet.
Load-shedding and generators
The Polokwane Municipality installed a generator at the Dalmada Treatment Works to ensure uninterrupted power supply for continuous treatment and pumping of water.
“As a permanent solution, the municipality will ensure that budget is made available for installation of power back-up to all key water supply systems, pump stations and water treatment plants,” Mpe said.
He added that the Ebenezer Water Treatment Plant was isolated from load-shedding and that the municipality is also isolating the Sandriver North supply system and the Dalmada Water Treatment Works from Stages 1 to 4.
Current status
Due to interventions undertaken by both the municipality and LNW, Mpe said the provision of water supple has improved to the city, Seshego, Mankweng and surrounding areas.
“We did, however, have challenges over the past few weeks that resulted in areas such as Nirvana, Seshego and parts of the city without water for a couple of days,” he said.
Mpe added that high lying areas are still affected by insufficient water supply but will continue to receive water by means of water tankers as a temporary measure while both parties (municipality and LNW) work on permanent solutions of providing water to taps.
