Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Patience Sonjica has effectively scuttled the billion-rand Albany Water Scheme intended for the Ndlambe municipal district, which covers Port Alfred, Kenton-on-Sea and a number of other small towns.
Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Patience Sonjica has effectively scuttled the billion-rand Albany Water Scheme intended for the Ndlambe municipal district, which covers Port Alfred, Kenton-on-Sea and a number of other small towns.
In a written reply to a question in Parliament, she said, “No, my department has not agreed to give a water allocation sourced from the Gariep Dam to the Ndlambe local municipality.”
As the scheme was dependent on such an allocation, it is now unlikely that the project will go ahead.
The controversial water scheme was devised because the Ndlambe municipal district suffers severe water restrictions in the summer holiday season.
The only glimmer of hope of reviving the Albany Water Scheme would be to convince an existing holder of water rights to sell them.
Responding to a question from Annette Lovemore, the DA spokesperson for water and environmental affairs, Sonjica said that at present the yield of the dam has already been fully allocated.
She showed her displeasure with the way the proposal had been drawn up by pointing out that it ignored recommended alternatives from a departmental study entitled Albany Coast Situation Assessment.
Makana councillor Michael Whisson, who claims to be one of very few to have read the Albany Regional Water Scheme’s proposals by its commercial sponsors, responded, "In view of the minister’s response, I hope we can now put undue dependence on the Gariep Dam behind us, and get on with developing a large scale recycling plant in Belmont valley.
This could provide us with more than half of our current needs – and much purer water than is currently available, albeit at increased cost per kilolitre."
The lack of a reliable water supply has also held up construction of large housing developments in the Port Alfred area.
Residents of both Makana and Ndlambe municipalities had serious reservations about the price tag of the scheme which had risen from R820-million in August 2007 to just over a billion rand a year later.
Sonjica said other methods of supplying water to Ndlambe need to be explored. She said local authorities should consider searching for and developing local groundwater resources as well as other options such as desalination.
She said that her department had already spent more than R2.5-million exploring groundwater resources and that so far "very promising results have come to light".
The minister also said that her department is considering a further grant of R2.5-million to be spent on refurbishing existing desalination plants in the municipality.
