After weeks without water in Grahamstown, another setback occurred over the weekend when the motor of one of the pumps at James Kleynhans Water Treatment Works stopped working.
After weeks without water in Grahamstown, another setback occurred over the weekend when the motor of one of the pumps at James Kleynhans Water Treatment Works stopped working.
The James Kleynhans facility receives water from Glen Melville Dam.
The municipality reported the incident this week, explaining that only one pump motor was working at the plant after the motor of a second pump seized.
Director of Infrastructure and Engineering Thembinkosi Myalato told Grocott's Mail this week that there one only one pump that is working at the plant.
"Another pump seized on Sunday, which caused the levels to drop, but now some areas already have water," Myalato said. When Grocott's Mail visited the purification plant, workers appeared to be under a lot of pressure to make sure the systems were working.
Myalato was furious after he heard of the visit, however, and said nobody was allowed to go to the plant without the authority of the municipal manager.
"No one is permitted to go there. It is a risk to the institution and to the public. You cannot just go in there… anyone is a risk," Myalato said.
Municipal spokesperson Mncedisi Boma said last week they had finalised a service agreement with the Amatola Water Board.
"We have signed the agreement last week with Amatola Water. The agreement states that they will bring professional engineers on board and in the next five years they will do skills transfer to our personnel," Boma said.
The agreement also states that Amatola Water will focus on the maintenance and operation of bulk water supply in Makana Municipality, Boma said.
He said they are already working on the water infrastructure in Makana. Water outages in past weeks have angered residents.
They have complained bitterly about poor communication from the municipality about extended water outages in parts of the city.
