Chamber urges community to get involved
In a strongly worded statement, the local Chamber of Commerce has made it displeasure about the current water woes very clear.
MALALANE – “Malalane has been suffering severe water supply outages and quality problems since March, 21, this year. The reason has been given as equipment failure, which is generally true, although directly caused by poor or absent maintenance.
Unexpected Eskom load-shedding during the week compounded the problem. The result has been reservoirs running empty on occasion, resulting first in deluges of silt flowing into geysers and washing machines and then no water at all. “Once water supply resumed, many water meters had been clogged to the point of requiring service before allowing any water through at all.
The situation appeared have improved by Saturday March 28, with officials visiting homes to clean filters. Residents severely affected by the outages included mothers with young babies, as well as owners of guest houses.
Of the latter, some were left in the embarrassing position of having to explain to foreign guests that they could not have a shower after a long day on the road, in spite of paying for five-star accommodation. Malalane will most likely not see those tourists again.
“Research done in 2007 found that the town’s sewerage works were inefficient to the point of disaster, in that 70 per cent of bacteria and pathogens entering the treatment dams, were still present when the “treated” water was discharged into the Crocodile River.
The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) has no figures for utilisation, but already estimated in 2010 that facilities were woefully inadequate. To date, eight years later, there has been a huge growth in the population of the town, but no development of any bulk infrastructure.
It logically follows that the effluent being discharged into our waterways is no safer than it was in 2007. In certain well-documented cases, sewage has been flowing directly from sewer lines into Buffalo Creek for a number of years.
“A way to engage with local government, in the form of input into the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) for the region, does exist.
The municipality is obliged to present the community with the opportunity to provide such input on an annual basis, after which it should form the foundation for any infrastructural planning. “Residents and businesspeople should engage with the Nkomazi Local Municipality (NLM) and attend IDP meetings to voice their concerns.”
