Huge water loss – Municipality does… nothing

MILLIONS and MILLIONS of litres of Vryheid’s, Bhekuzulu’s and Lakeside’s purified water has gone to waste. There was an unattended to burst pipe between the Bloemveld purification plant and the reservoirs on Vryheid Hill. The municipality was made aware of it, and did… nothing.

Millions of litres of pure, delicious Vryheid water gushed from the ground and flowed across the veld in a steady stream of waste. The burst was in the veld relatively close to where the Grootgewacht road intersects the Vryheid/Paulpietersburg road.

The municipality’s Engineering Department was advised of the burst on Tuesday, March 3, and did nothing. Water continued to be pumped from Bloemveld, the pumps were not turned off.

The municipality’s Engineering Department was reminded of the burst on Friday, March 6, and did nothing. Purified water continued to gush from the ground as from a generous spring.

On Wednesday last week, March 11, the Vryheid Herald contacted the Acting Municipal Manager, NN Sibisi, regarding the matter. The Acting Municipal Manager replied:

“Thank you for your email. We appreciated the follow up you have made in this matter. I have since sent MR Chetty our Technical Director to investigate this matter, necessary arrangements shall be speedily attended to.”

In fact, nothing was “attended to” and the water continued to flow, and not even the pumps at the Bloemveld plant were turned off.

One would have thought the municipality would be aware of the problem. If the purification plant treats “x” number of litres of water, and pumps a certain volume to the reservoirs, and the reservoirs are not rising accordingly, then it would seem obvious that there is a burst somewhere along the pipeline. One would have thought that having been advised by a concerned member of the public that there was a burst, that pumping from the purification plant would cease.

On Friday, March 13, 11 days after the burst was first reported, the Vryheid Herald contacted Cllr Harry Heyns, who was unaware of the problem.

Cllr Heyns visited the site of the burst, arranged to have the Bloemveld pumps turned off, established that the municipality at that time did not have the capability to do the repairs, and organised that a private contractor began the job immediately.

By 9:00pm on Friday, the job had been completed.

How much purified water was wasted cannot now be established. True, some of it will have flowed down the slope to a nearby stream, and that stream joins the Magot River, and the Magot River joins the Wit Umfolozi which flows into Klipfontein Dam.

But, given the meagre rainfall this year and the level of our dams as the rainy season comes to an end, such wastage might be described as criminal. Given that there is already talk of water restrictions being imposed before even winter arrives, the wastage simply adds to the disaster If arson is criminal, this water wastage is surely also criminal.

Given that the Vryheid Herald was last week invited to the launching of National Water Week by Minister of Water and Sanitation Ms Nomvula Mokonyane, the municipality’s response would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious.

We await comment from the municipality.