Planned development leads to questions about potable water
Development is in the fast lane in our little piece of the Lowveld. The ongoing struggle for space might be eased by the new R10 million development of extension 21 north of town.
MALALANE – Development is in the fast lane in our little piece of the Lowveld. The ongoing struggle for space might be eased by the new R10 million development of Extension 21 north of town.
The proposed plan for the extension is to address the current shortage of housing. The Department of Human Settlements hopes to allocate 350 residential stands on the 65-hectare tract. In addition, the Nkomazi Local Municipality (NLM) hopes to reallocate the municipal building to this area, and to construct a shopping centre.
Construction has started and is being conducted by Mpfumelelo Business Enterprise which, according to the department, has worked with it on previous projects.
Mr Freddie Ngobe, spokesman for the department, said it had been chosen via a competitive process. “The contractor was subjected to a competitive bidding process through the departmental supply-chain management processes. Mpfumelelo has completed several projects including a recent housing scheme of 460 units in various villages within Bushbuckridge Local Municipality and under the comprehensive rural development plan programme.”
Corridor Gazette asked the department whether upgrades to the existing or an additional sewerage treatment facility would be constructed. Ngobe said, “The existing plant has enough capacity to cater for the new development in Extension 21. For the present, the existing water treatment plant has enough capacity to supply the 500 stands that are currently under servicing.”
DA Cllr Mariette Preddy voiced her concern about the development being latched onto the existing systems. “At a meeting with the director of infrastructure, he said our water pumps had to run for 24 hours to supply the town with water, if the pumps do not run for more than four hours there will be a shortage. This to me means that our water management is inadequate to supply the town with safe drinking water and now Extension 21 will be added to the load. I doubt that it will be able to cope with the extra demand, not to mention the quality of water supplied by the municipality,” said Preddy.
According to the 2011 Blue Drop Provincial performance log, the municipality did not perform as well as in previous assessments and scored a mere 17,2 per cent and Malalane 14,4 per cent.
The Blue Drop comments stated, “The performance of NLM shows a significance decline in Blue Drop scores for all the water supply systems since the last assessment cycle. From a regulatory point of view, it is disheartening to observe such a decline given the fact that the municipality received an award after the previous cycle for the most improved, which included a portable monitoring kit. The municipality failed to comply with the drinking water quality required in terms of the South African national standard for drinking water (SANS 241) since little, or no monitoring took place during the assessment period.”
It is not clear what the municipality scored in this year’s assessment. Corridor Gazette approached municipal spokesman Mr Cyril Ripinga, but he was unable to comment on the development and the water situation at the time of going to print.
