City mayor meets with ward 22

The meeting took place at the council chambers on 23 February where Polokwane Municipality’s Water and Sanitation Director, Monyamane Makoti and Lepelle Northern Water’s Acting CEO, Ahuiwi Netshidaulu gave a presentation about their plans to alleviate the water problem that the city has been experiencing for years.

Makoti explained that the two main areas that continue to be a challenge is Flora Park and Serala View, which are at the highest point of the city’s distribution layout.

“We had to look at borehole developments to identify the well fields that can give us enough water to pump into the system as an augmentation. Polokwane receives most if its water from external sources being the Olifantspoort Water Scheme, Ebenezer and Dap Naude dams,” he said.

The three systems combined supply the city with almost 58 million litres of water daily. The rest comes from smaller sources including boreholes. The boreholes have a capacity of around six million litres of water but currently supply three megalitres due to the change in the flow of pipes. They have developed an additional 72 boreholes to add to the Polokwane system and it should be concluded by August this year. “The pipe work has already been laid; we are just finalising it. The main hold up is the completion of purification works,” he added.

Netshidaulu said that they are in the process of replacing and refurbishing their infrastructure as 60% needs replacement and refurbishing.

He added that another challenge that comes with the ongoing rain is that murky water floods into the dams and that their systems are unable to treat this. They have, however, managed to secure stability at Olifantspoort in the form of a suitable chemical. This chemical can however not serve as a solution at the Ebenezer because the design of the plant is a direct flotation and there is no septic tank to intercept the chemical. A solution is being sought at this point. The mayor stated that she had requested a meeting with Eskom to discuss the possibility of a powerline to assist with the pumping of water into the city. If all goes according to plan, the meeting will take place today (Thursday).

Mariëtte Pretorius, ward 22 councillor said the severity of the problem had properly been explained, and that she hopes the mayor can ensure that the powerline is exempted from load shedding.

Frank Hislop, who has business interests in ward 22 said that, should the municipality need assistance from the private sector, they should not hesitate to communicate this since the water issues are a collective problem.