Grahamstown’s water supply is running out and the water restrictions implemented since September do not seem to be helping, according to municipal spokesperson Thandy Matebese.
He believes that residents are not taking the water situation seriously and the R200 fine in place for offenders is not enough of a deterrent.
Grahamstown’s water supply is running out and the water restrictions implemented since September do not seem to be helping, according to municipal spokesperson Thandy Matebese.
He believes that residents are not taking the water situation seriously and the R200 fine in place for offenders is not enough of a deterrent.
The restrictions only prohibit the use of garden hoses and the use of municipal water for car washing.
According to Makana Municipality’s website, water restrictions are put in place any time when dam volumes have fallen to less than 40% of the total previous year’s consumption. Milner, Jamieson, Howison’s Poort andSettler’s dams, which supply water to the western regions of Grahamstown are at very low level due to the drought.
This area includes the industrial area which uses a large amount of water. Grahamstown East is supplied
by Glen Melville Dam which gets its water from Gariep Dam via the Fish River and because Gariep Dam is full, so is Glen Melville.
When more water is needed, the Department of Water Affairs can apply to Gariep Dam officials to release more water.
However, there is no such solution for Grahamstown West and water cannot be transported from Glen Melville Dam in the east to residents in the west.
Since water restrictions were imposedthe municipality has been publishing fortnightly reports on the water levels in the four depleted dams.
The latest report indicated that the largest dam, Settler’s, was down to 6% of capacity at just three metres deep.
Howison’s Poort was 34% full and Milner Dam was a quarter full. As early as July last year, worryingly low water levels in the Eastern Cape caused Water Affairs and Forestry minister Buyelwa Sonjica to officially declare several areas including the Alfred Nzo, Amathole, Cacadu, Chris Hani, OR Tambo and Ukhahlamba
District municipalities as disaster areas.
“We have a crisis when it comes to water in the Eastern Cape,” she said. The areas that have suffered the most, according to Agri-Eastern Cape president Kerneels Pietersen, extend from Peddie to Langkloof and include Grahamstown.
Matebese said the municipality’s next move is tocrack down on offenders and to order car wash businesses
not to use fresh tap water.
He also stated that there is no “scientific method” of keeping track of who flouts the rules and so the responsibility falls on municipal workers to report lawbreakers if theysee them.
Municipalities also have the right to cut off the water supply for several hours a day in the case of severe drought, and should the situation in Makana continue, says Matabese, this may become a possibility.
