`BETHAL – Bethal Rand, as well as Ext 3 and Ext 8 in Bethal, have been severely affected by water shortages over the past few weeks.
Ms Marietjie Fourie, DA ward councillor in Bethal, said this water crisis is attributed to two main factors, namely water restrictions and inconsistant water supply.
“Incorrect information is being spread that infrastructure to supply water to residents is not available,” said Ms Fourie.
She explained that the inconsistant water supply began when Rand Water experienced problems with their telemetry (a device used to measure water levels in a tank).
“Rand Water was unable to see the levels at the Bethal Rand reservoir, and so they were pumping and stopping at certain intervals. This resulted in the reservoir running dry.”
Ms Fourie said while municipal workers were struggling to fill up the Bethal Rand reservoir, Rand Water encountered a problem at the Bloemendal water pump station due to power failure which lead to no pumping of water to the Govan Mbeki Municipality for almost a day.
“On top of this, Rand Water then experienced a bulk pipe burst at Devon and was again not able to pump water to GMM for almost a day. All these problems had an impact on the municipality’s water storage tanks. Bethal was the worst affected town in the area.”
Ms Fourie said imposed water restrictions to GMM are making the situation more dire.
“Our reservoirs are empty and the water supplied by Rand Water is not sufficient for the municipality to supply water to some areas such as Ext 3, 8 and Bethal Rand.”
Two reservoirs. the Bethal North and the Bethal Rand reservoirs, are fairly close to each other.
According to Ms Fourie there are bays for two pumps at the Bethal North reservoir but only one is used at a time.
“Although one of the pumps is not operational due to repairs, the second one is in working order. This pump can however only be used once there is actually water to pump.
That is why it was not running at the time the concerned resident visited the reservoir.”
Ms Fourie assured residents that the pump is in a working condition and can be used when there is enough quantities of water in the water storage tanks.
“Unfortunately the water was only about knee high this morning, 30 December.”
Ms Fourie recorded a video of the working pump.
Ms Mariaan Chamberlain, DA councillor dealing with technical issues in the Govan Mbeki Municipality, stood in for Ms Fourie while the ward councillor was on sick leave.
She said Rand Water is throttling GMM with 20 per cent less water pressure.
“Bethal’s water woes have been on and off since before Christmas.
“The officials were hopeful to have the water restored by Saturday, but the reservoir levels only reached 35 per cent by that time.”
Ms Chamberlain said the water also runs out quickly as residents fill up JoJo tanks as soon as there is water available.
The reservoirs are not given sufficient time to fill up.
