Ga-Nala Water Purification Plant is getting water from Water Affairs’ uSuthu scheme via Jericho Dam with a design capacity 15 mega-litres per day and a daily demand of eight mega-litres per day. Water Affairs has requested 18 days water shutdown from September 29 to October 17 to do planned maintenance.
Emalahleni Local Municipality as a Water Service Authority has a legislative mandate to fulfil, in terms of Water Service Act 108 of 1997.
The Act mandates the municipality to ensure water supply to its consumers under it area of jurisdiction. The act further obligates the water services authority to make provision for basic water supply in cases of planned and unplanned interruptions.
In terms of this obligation the following measures are in place as contingency plans for the planned outages:
*40 temporary Jo-jo tanks (5 000 litres) will be placed at strategic positions in the affected area for residents to tap water from. These will be serviced by municipal mobile tankers on a daily basis.
*The detailed location of the tanks will be published next week. These have been determined in consultation with the Ward councillors.
*The office of the speaker will assist in coordinating and monitoring of water tanks and tankers through the ward councillors.
*Directorate Public Safety will patrol the area during the shutdown period.
*20 by 20 000-litre mobile water tankers will be used to serve the area and temporary tanks on a daily basis.
*Two mega-litres of water is required per day as per free basic water supply (25 litres per person per day on an average of six per house hold at 10 2074 households as per Stats SA).
*Water will be supplied from KwaGuqa and Transport Department.
*Water quality will be monitored (Chlorine boost).
*The cost of this operation for the period will be R1.5-million.
*The water tanks will be re used in areas where needed afterwards.
*Area location number of water tanks required:
Thubelihle Scopper (three), Thubelihle White City (three), Thubelihle Dark city (three), Thubelihle Extension 4 (three), Thubelihle Extension 5 (three), Kriel Old age home (two), Kriel Shopping complex (two), Kriel Civic centre (one), Kriel Police station (three), Kriel Extension 9 and 10 (three), Kriel Extension 7 and 8 (three), Kriel Extension 12,13 and 14 (four), Kriel Ext 1 and 5 (three) and Kriel Ext 2 and 3 (three).
Water will be distributed in two shifts and two loads per shift.
The Democratic Alliance noted the contingency plans on water supply shutdown.
“The DA is aware of the municipalities that have given notice of these dry tap periods. Both of these municipalities need to do urgent maintenance and repairs to the water supply infrastructure in the municipality and have announced contingency for the period of water shutdown. While the DA appreciates the contingency plans in place, the following are very worrying factors:
“Municipalities should not have to go to the extreme of a complete water shutdown, instead of keeping up with routine maintenance of water supply infrastructure.
“The fact that MEGA was mandated to work on bulk water projects in Emalahleni Municipality and has spent large amounts of money over two years, the infrastructure is still failing. The forecast is of an entire community being without water for 21 days.
“The DA will keep a close eye on happenings in these municipalities during the time of the water outage. They will specifically be looking after the community’s interest when it comes to the following:
*Water shortages due to lack of implementation of contingency plans.
*The increased risk for corruption with the delivery of water.
*Sanitation issues in suburbs, at schools and community centers during this time.
*The potential for total chaos due to non-delivery during this time.
“The DA will keep government accountable for the basic services it is mandated to deliver to citizens of Mpumalanga.”
