"I can take leave this year. Can you believe it?" Last Christmas Day, area operations manager for Amatola Water Chris Nair was elbow-deep in sludge at the James Kleynhans Water Treatment Works, where lack of maintenance over years had finally slowed the plant to a trickle.
"I can take leave this year. Can you believe it?" Last Christmas Day, area operations manager for Amatola Water Chris Nair was elbow-deep in sludge at the James Kleynhans Water Treatment Works, where lack of maintenance over years had finally slowed the plant to a trickle.
He and his colleagues struggled through the festive season to get water flowing through Grahamstown's pipes. This year, it's different.
Amatola Water, contracted to stabilise and manage Makana's bulk water supply, and MBB Consulting, here to plug infrastructure problems, have worked flat-out over the past year.
They've been so successful that they've doubled the treatment capactiy at James Kleynhans, and come close to doubling its supply capacity.
"In October last year, were were only able to treat 6-7 million litres a day at James Kleynhans.
"Now we're treating 13 million litres a day, and supplying 11-11.5 million." But still, Grahamstown may be without water this Christmas.
"Rolling blackouts will kill this plant's ability to meet demand," Nair told Grocott's Mail on Monday. He said frequently stopping the pumps would have a cumulative effect on water levels at the Howieson's Poort and James Kleynhans plants.
"The city may have to implement water rationing – but that will have to come from Makana." Adding to the demand were new housing developments in the city that had come on stream.
"Because water is more available, demand has gone up, not evened out," Nair said. A long-term plan for increasing the city's water capacity was to recommission Milner and Jameson dams on the Highlands Road. Both supply outlets must be upgraded first though.
"The gravity feeds are still in place. At Jameson the stacking valve is non-functional.
"We will have to overhaul all the valves and sections of the pipeline," Nair said. Cameras would be used to assess the integrity of the pipes.
"Then we'll be in a position to say whether they must replace the whole line or sections of it." Water would be pumped from Milner dam to the Waainek treatment plant. The short-term contingency for outages caused by rolling blackouts and high demand is to control the supply to the town.
"The first measure is pressure demand management: the municipality will throttle down supply to various zones to keep reservoirs above minimum levels.
"If the demand is still excessive, then complete water rationing for a few hours a day will have to be introduced." For now it's good news though. Nair says the heavy rains in catchment areas for Grahamstown in recent weeks are good news for the city's water outlook.
"Just before the heavy storm [on 12 November]we were on danger level," Nair said. "Another metre or so less and we wouldn't have been able to run the pumps." This was the case during a water shortage in 2010, Nair said, when the levels of the water storage dams were so low that the pumps couldn't be run.
"The rain was a blessing: the dam levels are up again," Nair said. "But consumers need to be sensitised to the fact that how they use water affects integrity of the water supply as a whole.
"At current demand, supply from the western side is at risk.
"We're in a better position to handle it this year than last year. Went through learning cycle. "It's a unique situation in Grahamstown: There's more than one supply dam, for a start.
"On the west side of town there is limited water, but spare treatment capacity. It's the reverse on the eastern side.
"The fact that they're interlinked means we can balance supply." A third pump ordered for the Howieson't Poort pump station, that took six months to build, is soon to be commissioned.
Last Christmas's prolonged outage was because one of the pumps at Howieson's Poort broke and had to be sent for repair. The other pump couldn't run at full capacity because of an electrical problem.
The third pump will be tested in early January. However, the city's water systems are stable enough that Nair is confident he can take a three-week break this holiday season.
"The overhead [electircity supply lines from Howieson's Poort to Waainek]are on target. This time next year, Grahamstown's infrastructure will be much better than it is now."
After freak storms hit Grahamstown two weeks ago, heavy rain took over on Sunday night 23 November. Rain gauge readings of up to 36mm of rain were reported in and around the city.
Members of the Grocott's Mail weather-watching team reported readings of between 33mm and 36mm overnight. Nick James, of Rivendell at the bottom of Howieson's Poort around 10km from Grahamstown off the N2 west, said, "The readings were up to 33mm, which does not do much good for the gravel roads. Other than that there was no damage done by the rain."
Grahamstown resident Yvain Erasmus, of Cradock Heights, said, "The storm really scared us last night. It came in one of our rooms here. The house is well built, but the rain came through the door and it just turned wet all over."
Meanwhile, Alicedale is still recovering from the effects of the freak storm on Wednesday 12 November. Residents reported broken windows and damaged roofs as a result of the hail and driving rain. Eli Konstant compared the storm to a tornado the town experienced in 2008.
"I was so scared when the lightning hit," Konstant said. "It was like that same tornado we experienced back in 2008.
"But the people I am most worried about are the people from the townships," she said.
The forecast for the weekend in Grahamstown is 21C and cloudy tomorrow; a sunny 24C on Sunday. Monday 1 December will be a warm 26 degrees, according to weather site yr.no.
Wednesday 3 December is the next predicted rain day at 16C.
