Santa forgot to bring the water this Christmas. For many residents preparing for Christmas was a nightmare as dry taps made it nearly impossible to cook or wash up.
Not to even talk about washing piling up and general cleaning that could not be done before the visitors knocked on the door for Christmas lunch.
The municipality had a bag full of excuses.
The water problems started earlier this month when the municipal communications unit posted that the water supply to all areas supplied from Point B high reservoir are without water supply due to the low reservoir levels. One pump from Point D reservoir has been stopped due to the low level of Point D command reservoir.
In order to sustain the demand for Point B low, B to C and Point C reservoirs at least three pumps are required from Point D command reservoir non stop, unfortunately the system is forced to reduce pumping from Point D when the level of Point D command reservoir dropped.
The system is automated and will automatically commence when the levels of the reservoirs improved.
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Since then it has been a rollercoaster or reservoir problems that left the taps dry.
“Someone is not doing proper planning and they are using the reservoirs as excuses. It is time someone steps up and tell us what is really going on,” said local businessman and resident Mr John Cornish.
On social media residents are not holding back on their anger.
“Please tell us what the problem was. After three days we deserve to know,” said Mr Clive Hatch.
“Still no water in Bankenveld Golf Estate. Five days, please sort this out as soon as possible,” said Ms Madelein van Emmenes.
Residents were fuming when brown water came out of their taps after days of being without it.
The municipality explained,
“Water discoloration is due to the continuous increase of manganese concentration. The average raw water concentration for last week was approximately 400ug/l while this week’s average is 1026ug/l. According to SANS 241:2015 the required potable water limit must be below 100ug/l for aesthetic and 400ug/l for health risk. The current average for treated water is 226ug/l hence it is not aesthetically pleasing. The reason for the current failures is due to the power failures and defects on critical plant components. The defects have been addressed hence improvement on the manganese removal efficiency.”
They went on and said it must be noted however that the water purification plant is not designed for dissolved solids.
It is only designed for suspended solids and microbiological contaminants, hence the plant is currently under refurbishment and modification to improve manganese and iron removal efficiency.
Currently, manual and labour intensive lime dosing operations shall be employed to boost the system such that it is able rise pH to a required level (above 8.5) for manganese oxidation to take place.
The existing plant configuration is unable to effectively raise the pH level more especially when treating high manganese concentration. Commissioning of the silo system shall be a permanent solution in this regard.
Continuous improvement and developments shall be reported to indicate progress. Continuous water quality monitoring shall be conducted from the resource to the consumer to ensure effective risk monitoring.
“Residents are fed up. We have had our fair share of service delivery failure. Someone must be held accountable for this disaster,” Mr Cornish said.
