A recent water works report by Makana Municipality’s Technical and Infrastructural Services and emergency water deliveries has revealed a marked increase in water usage in Grahamstown.
A recent water works report by Makana Municipality’s Technical and Infrastructural Services and emergency water deliveries has revealed a marked increase in water usage in Grahamstown.
The report indicated that 64 318m3 of treated water in the Waainek and 307 400m3 in the James Kleynhans water treatment works indicates that too much water was used by Grahamstown residents in March.
The figures have raised concerns among council members of the Land, Housing, Infrastructural Development and Disaster Management (LHID) portfolio committee.
Makana Councillor Michael Whisson said “the figures of this report are two of the highest. We are in a time of drought, no one is releasing restrictions for water.
It seems like a reckless usage right across the board if we are using 307 400m3 that is more then we used last year.”
He also queried the water savings campaign which the municipality has been planning for a while, saying that it is time for it to kick in.
Technical and Infrustructural Services director, Dabula Njilo responded to Whisson saying that the increase in usage of treated water did not reflect that there are no restrictions in place. He said he has made the public aware of these restrictions through letters.
“Last weekend we had a session where we identified that we have water restrictions in place, we just need to enforce them.”
Njilo said that the water savings campaign has a proposed budget but it has not been finalised yet. Water concerns were also raised during the Social Services, Community Empowerment and Protection Services portfolio committee last week Wednesday, where the progress of the planned water savings campaign was questioned.
“A proposal was drawn up and submitted to the managerial committee, as we were requesting for funding for that programme,” says Community and Social Services director, Mandisi Planga.
He added that they were advised to search for service providers to assist in the lack of internal capacity. During the meeting Whisson mentioned that past campaigns have had no effect on water usage as reflected by the water works report.
Discussing February’s monthly report on water deliveries, Makana Traffic Chief Coenraad Hanekom pointed out a problem with the high amounts of emergency water deliveries.
According to the recent report, the dog unit made four emergency water deliveries in the space of four months due to water outages.
In light of the high water usage, Hanekom said that they can’t just keep on delivering to them even if they are ratepayers.
Whisson said that this started as an action to assist people in times of drought, but it has gone downhill. He suggested roping in the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry as well as the municipal water department to look at ways at alternative ways of harvesting water and available environmental technologies such as waterless toilets.
“We have been good and generous in looking after people, but a crisis should not develop into a habit,” Whisson said.