• Massimo Zanette, a ‘dirty’, ‘thirsty’ and concerned citizen of Noordheuwel writes:
Wednesday night, September 21, at 18:30 I attended the meeting at Hoërskool Noordheuwel where the mayor, and some of his team, met with the concerned residents of Noordheuwel with regards to the water crisis that we have had for around 12 days.
Also read: Water restored! Residents can now take that long-awaited shower
His opening speech covered a large portion of the reasons behind the problem, but the attendees were not too happy with the explanation.
His speech was followed by a question-and-answer session, where some valid and strong points were raised by the citizens. I left at 19:30, as I realised that there would be no real solution tabled here and the discussion was, in my opinion, becoming a personal attack on the mayor.
My opinion. However, having had the time to think about what the mayor presented and some of the comments from the audience, I have come to some conclusions.
1. The mayor spoke to the current load-shedding issues – at level 5 and 6. This was not the problem when the water shortages started on August 31 in other areas of Mogale! No one at the meeting accepted that.
2. The mayor mentioned that some areas had received “special dispensation”, due to the industrial requirement for water. This included Boltonia for the oil manufacturer, and Factoria for some industries there. He didn’t mention Chamdor, but as I work in Chamdor and have not seen a problem with water, I assume the same for SAB and the hospital.
So, “special dispensation” means that preference is given to those industrial installations that employ people, and use a lot of water (read pay lots of revenue to the council). The only way that this can be done, is by opening some valves, and closing others. I don’t believe that they are all under a different water feed, so my assumption must stand! Well then, if I am correct, maybe over the weekends these industries should shut down, and the water be diverted to the residential areas, at least giving us time to refill the reservoirs!
3. The mayor explained how at least one kilometre of water in the pipeline would run backwards whenever the pumps shut down (due to load-shedding). An attendee correctly pointed out that this could easily be resolved with the installation of a non-return valve! My opinion – maybe the person in charge of Mogale Water needs to be replaced with someone who is competent.
4. Like with the load-shedding, we know that areas can be “ring-fenced”. Example, Chamdor is excluded because we fall into the same supply as Leratong Hospital, (and SAB and others), so are exempt from load-shedding. Surely the approach could be that Eskom does not load-shed areas where pump stations are located? This is an easy discussion the mayor should/ could be having, even if it needs escalation to provincial or national level.
5. Finally, I must ask: Are Mogale’s accounts with Rand Water and Eskom up to date? Or are we being punished because our accounts are so far in arrears?
