‘Bear with us’ asks Lekwa mayor about service delivery problems
The mayor acknowledged the challenges relating to water, electricity and refuse removal and offered his apology.
Water shortages on the scale experienced the past week were a thorn in the flesh of many.
The Standerton Advertiser accompanied the DA-councillor Alberto Franco, to the Standerton Water Treatment Plant and Standerton Sewerage Plant on January 24 to investigate.
At the water plant, water flows freely over the rim of one dam.
Housekeeping is not on top of the agenda and a worker could not cut the grass since no petrol was available for the mower.
According to the employee, he did inform the manager. Some of the mowers and weed-eaters are stored inside the entrance. Beer bottles were spotted in the one dilapidated toilet.
The plant is filthy, has an open electrical board and water on the floor surface in one area is making the floor slippery.
“Because of load-shedding it takes four to eight hours for reservoirs to fill,” Franco said.
“If the water reclines to a certain level, higher-lying areas have no supply.”
According to Franco, the Lekwa Municipality is contractually obligated to supply Astral Foods with 4ML water daily and the number stands ideally at 37ML for the whole of Lekwa.
According to Franco, the figure was at 24ML at 10:00 the day of the visit. Astral has in the meantime repaired one of its units at the plant.
“Where is the water going to?” Franco asked.
The councillor was adamant that the council is making the right decisions, but said the problem lies in implementing the resolutions.
He also said the municipality functions on crisis management and no programmes or schedules are available to keep the plant running.
“Load-shedding exacerbated the problems,” he added.
The sewerage plant looked functional from the outside for someone not technically geared. The implications for residents and the business community are enormous.
With a drought wreaking disaster on the farming community, a businesswoman in town decided to sink a borehole at her nursery.
An R1.8m truck was drilling into the ground at the loading zone, intent on going in at least 60m at 10:30 on Tuesday.
Alette Schutte said the JoJo-tanks need to fill up and with pipes leaking and continually being repaired, the business is in a crisis.
Franco said on January 25 there is no water problem, but a water management problem.
According to him, Standerton has six reservoirs that have to fill up. Only the one in Kieser Street has water.
Franco indicated he requested a meeting with the Lekwa HOD of water and sanitation the past week. It resulted in a full-scale oversight process with senior leadership.
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Delani Louis Thabethe, executive mayor, accompanied by management, paid a visit to the reservoirs the past week.
In Thabethe’s press briefing on Lekwa’s Facebook page the past week, new aspirations, hopes and goals were discussed.
The mayor acknowledged the challenges relating to water, electricity and refuse removal and offered his apology.
“We are passionate about service delivery,” he said.
According to him, potholes on roads are to be tackled vigorously.
Regarding the water problem in Lekwa, Thabethe identified a few key problems such as ageing infrastructure with asbestos pipes in the network, insufficient capacity at the reservoirs, dysfunctional reservoirs and the impact of load-shedding.
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At this stage, only the Kieser Reservoir is functioning, although not to capacity. Thabethe said the municipality is still waiting on the funding promised by the Minister of Water and Sanitation.
He said Lekwa will try to reconnect the other reservoirs to the network.
They are also planning the installation of generators at both the Water Treatment Plant in Standerton and Morgenzon.
The pumps can then function during load-shedding. Water tankers had been dispatched to areas without water supply, but the council needs the assistance of the councillors to identify the areas.
“This is a temporary measure and we are investigating a permanent solution.”
Planned maintenance on one substation resulted in no power from 08:00 until after 16:00 on January 26 and not a trickle of water for residents.
Adding insult to injury, the power then tripped in sub B at about 16:40 and technicians attended to the problem.
About refuse collection, Thabethe said it was receiving the attention it deserves.
“This municipality belongs to all of us,” Thabethe said in conclusion.
“Bear with us.”
