Millions of litres of treated water are being used to fill farm dams as Grahamstown residents continue to struggle with outages and substandard water. Avuyile Mngxitama-Diko reports.
Millions of litres of treated water are being used to fill farm dams as Grahamstown residents continue to struggle with outages and substandard water. Avuyile Mngxitama-Diko reports.
The municipality has vowed to confront a group of farm owners after a recent search for leaks in the water pipes serving Grahamstown East has revealed rampant water theft.
Called on to investigate why the Botha's Hill reservoir, east of Grahamstown, was not filling up, a new municipal foreman conducted an inspection.
What he discovered was a maze of connections to a major Grahamstown water-supply pipe, feeding into a series of dams on a private game farm on the Fort Beaufort Road.
There was evidence to suggest that the connections might have been active for as long as five years. Botha's Hill reservoir is crucial to water management in Grahamstown.
According to the Rhodes-based Institute of Water Research, it supplies the higher-lying areas of Grahamstown East, including Joza, Fingo Village and parts of Vukani. It also stores treated water from the James Kleynhans Water Treatment Works before being dispersed to the Mayfield and Tantyi reservoirs, and the Grahamstown West system.
"The foreman took the initiative of inspecting all the pipes to see if there were any leaks. Instead he found illegal pipe connections," Makana's Technical and Infrastructure Services Director Thembinkosi Myalato told Grocott's Mail this week.
The accompanying photograph shows some of these illegal connections, emerging from the brick structure covering a major valve.
"The municipal pipes go through the farms. We have a servitude agreement with the farmers. since the pipes are on their land," Myalato said.
It was on one of these farms, he said, that a water meter was being bypassed. Explaining how this had been done, he said a set of scour valves – occasionally opened to flush out water from the pipes – was located on the farm.
"What we found out is that they have been vandalised and they were [staying open]24/7. When we followed these illegal pipes we saw that the water is going straight to the dams on the farm," Myalato said.
After the illegal pipes were cut, the Botha's Hill reservoir had filled up quickly. "We also saw that the dams on those farms are full – yet we haven't had that much rain in a long time. "We tested the water in the dams and we found out that it is treated water and it belongs to the municipality," he said.
Myalato confirmed that the millions of litres apparently filling the farm dams is the water that should be supplying Grahamstown East residents.
Myalato said this could be part of the reason why there are frequent water outages in those areas. The municipality planned to meet with the farmers yesterday to confront them about the situation.
One farmer, Myalato said, reportedly claimed that the municipality had offered him free water. Asked whether the municipality intended to lay a charge, Myalato said they first wanted to meet with the farmers to hear their side of the story.
"We could not go to the police because we have to get the servitude agreements that the municipality has with them. One of the farmers claims that the municipality promised him free water. That is not possible because there is a meter in his yard," Myalato said.
The foreman who made the discovery started working at the municipality in November.
Asked why the previous foreman had not detected the problem Myalato said, "That is what we are investigating. They are supposed to walk the line and do a proper inspection from time to time. We don't know why this was not seen for so long."
Attempts to get comments from the farmers were unsuccessful.
Although the municipality has since cut off water flow to the illegal pipes, Myalato suspects there could be more on surrounding farms.
He said when municipal officials had tried to access one of the farms, the gates were locked and the padlocks – to which they'd had the keys – had been changed.
