Being prepared was what saw Grahamstown schools through last week's water outages. Kingswood College, the Diocesan School for Girls and Hoerskool PJ Olivier said they'd had contingency plans in place that allowed them to continue throughout the week-long city-wide water cuts, without compromising their pupils' health and safety.
Being prepared was what saw Grahamstown schools through last week's water outages. Kingswood College, the Diocesan School for Girls and Hoerskool PJ Olivier said they'd had contingency plans in place that allowed them to continue throughout the week-long city-wide water cuts, without compromising their pupils' health and safety.
But they warned that poor communication from the municipality could have disastrous consequences in similar future crises.
Together with St Andrew's College, DSG and Kingswood are still in session.
PJ Olivier, Victoria Girls' High, Mary Waters, Nathaniel Nyaluza and Nombulelo close on Thursday, and Graeme College and Oatlands closed last Thursday.
All have had to rely on alternative water sources, including boreholes, back-up storage units and reservoirs.
For normal activities to continue, some even sought help beyond the school walls from the community.
“Many boarders were able to shower and bath at nearby homes that had water throughout, and also resorted to regular swims in our pools,” said Derek Braans, Headmaster of Kingswood Junior School.
He also served as Acting College Head at the height of the water crisis last week. Fortunately, Kingswood was without water for only three days – a much lighter dry spell than was experienced at PJ Olivier.
The school, which has been struggling with its municipal water supply since the beginning of the year, is situated on high ground.
To overcome this logistical problem, there are six 10 000 litre reservoir tanks on the school grounds to supply water for the pupils and staff.
“Without these, the continuation of education would have impossible,” said PJ Olivier principal Piet Snyders.
There have also been concerns about the consequences of poor physical hygiene.
“The ablutions aren’t always running and this has a massive impact on the boarding school especially, which accommodates 80% of our 350 enrolled students,” said Dave Jarvis, Business Manager at Diocesan School Girls.
“We are disappointed with the municipality from an infrastructural perspective, because there are regular breakdowns, not only in water but electricity as well."
"We need more communication – we never know what’s happening, so we can’t plan ahead. It’s hard to understand what’s going on,” Jarvis said.
Braans is concerned about the impact on the school's viability.
“We believe this situation is not acceptable and we are concerned about the long-term effects this could possibly have on future enrolment,” he told Grocott's Mail on Friday.
Snyders expressed similar sentiments about the town's viability. “Grahamstown will otherwise be in a very bad situation if something is not done soon,” Snyders said.
