By Luvuyo Mjekula and Rikie Lai
The water crisis in Makhanda appears to be going from bad to worse, with frustrated ratepayers and ordinary residents reporting more frequent water outages while the Makana Municipality is keeping mum.
On a daily basis, social media pages are flooded with messages like this one: “Water situation today??? Day number….!!! Seems I have to buy water …AGAIN!!!”
Said another ratepayer recently: “I have not had water at 63 Hill since Saturday. I previously had a problem in that all my neighbors had water but I did not. This was after the water was switched off for Amatola Water to attend to maintenence at Waainek.”
Another resident complained: “Turn on the water! You have five full dams; a virtual unlimited supply of water at Glen Melville; two water treatment works (one fully upgraded last week); many water supply experts at Rhodes University and we have not had water for two days.”
This was a message from DA councillor, Cary Clark, to the municipality: “Hi, I have lots of people complaining about not having water. They were promised it would be switched on yesterday but it was not. Since Saturday people have not had water without any further explanation. This is really unacceptable and lack of communication shows a very uncaring attitude and causes mistrust. Please can you urgently issue a communication with regards to the lack of water as a matter of extreme urgency.”
Other residents’ complaints pertain to water and sewage leaks in and around Makhanda.
Wrote one resident: “Water leak outside Midlands College is pumping water down the drainage channel of Milner Street and then into Worcester Street. This could explain the low pressure and no water in Taunton, Glastonbury Roads.”
This week, retired engineer Peter Sturrock was among concerned ratepayers who tried to approach Makana mayor Yandiswa Vara and/or municipal manager Phumelelo Kate, to no avail.
Sturrock told Grocott’s Mail that their intended meeting with the municipal manager was aimed at discussing a number of issues of concern to residents, including the water availability issue.
Amongst these are a number of instances where the municipality appears to be disregarding court orders to comply, Sturrock said
These included:
- The management of the municipal waste site;
- The blocking of candidates’ legitimately chosen by voters to represent them in Council;
- Compliance with electricity payments to Eskom
“These are matters already decided by a court of law but the municipality is wasting scarce finances to defend [them].”
Sturrock said further issues of concern the residents wanted to discuss with the municipal manager were the perennial ones such as the enforcement of municipal bylaws, creation of employment and self-esteem particularly for the youth, roads and stormwater, sewerage leaks, security around municipal infrastructure, refuse removal – particularly in township areas.
“These are all matters that have been raised at NDP meetings in response to which the Hon Mayor has said in each instance that they are being addressed – residents want to know what the progress has been. The last NDP meeting in the City Hall was attended by a dozen people at the end of which the Speaker verbalized that it was a most successful meeting. Possibly he thinks that the poor attendance indicated that people are satisfied – how more out of touch can this municipality possibly be!”
Sturrock took Grocott’s Mail back to June 2023 when the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) intervened and appointed Amatola Water to take over the bulk water supply of Makhanda in order to prevent a crisis in the delivery of water to the town.
At the time, said Sturrock, the James Kleynhans Water Treatment Works (JKWTW), which was in its eighth year of expansion, was capable of treating and pumping 10Ml/d of water to Makhanda.
“The terms of reference, planning, programming, management and responsibility between Makana Municipality and Amatola seem to have been inadequate. The cooperation between the two authorities appears to have been non-existent.”
Sturrock says Amatola ‘completed’ Phase 2 of the expansion at the end July and the benefit to Makhanda was that 20ML per day can now be treated but only 12Ml/d can be pumped to Makhanda. “This is no benefit.”
Asked to elaborate, Sturrock said the 20ML per day was part of the original Phase 2 and the municipal director of engineering at the time said in a public meeting in April 2023 that this would be achieved by the end June 2023.
“The problem has now become that Amatola says the treatment has achieved 20ML perday, which it has, but it seems that the pump station which requires two additional pumps to consistently pump 20ML per day is now somehow not regarded as part of the bulk water supply – again part of the disconnect between Amatola and the municipality.”
Sturrock further explained that some components of Phase 2 of the expansion have been shifted to Phase 3, which should commence on site in Jan 2025. “So, the long-awaited goal of 20 ML per day of water from JKWTW may reach the residents of Makhanda in about March 2025.”
He said the other main water supply to Makhanda is from Howiesons Poort (a maximum of 8ML per day), limited by the treatment capacity of Waainek Water Treatment Works (WTW).
“Contrary to promises from the municipality (some suspect pump deals here) and Amatola, the Howiesons Poort pump station still only had one operational pump in place on 1 Aug, 2024. This makes consistent water delivery very vulnerable.”
Sturrock says there are also leaks on the pumped water rising main which need attention. “This is apparently not necessary as the municipality is applying for finance to replace the entire pipeline (there must be some funds required there) which will take at least five years to realise – and presumably more leaks or a burst or two.”
Grocott’s Mail’s attempts to obtain comment from municipal spokesperson Anele Mjekula have fallen on deaf ears as no response has been forthcoming.
In its statement recently, Amatola Water celebrated having achieved a milestone. Acting communicaitons manager Amanda Skritch said: “The milestone achievement marks a major development in the overall upgrading of the JKWTW plant and its automated 20ML per day bulk water supply to Makhanda (Grahamstown) residents and business communities.”
Skritch said the three-phased JKWTW upgrades include amongst others, the construction and installation of water treatment works, storage facilities, pipelines, pump stations and associated system components to meet the bulk portable water for Makhanda.
Intervention measures that were put in place in May and June yielded positive results, with Phase 2 being completed on 30June 2024 and all commissioning and training being done by 16 July 2024.
This extended date was due to a series of financial and technical challenges experienced by the contractor, resulting in the project completion date been revised.
She said: “This is significant progress towards ensuring uninterrupted water supply in Makana Local Municipality as per our implementing agent mandate by the Department of Water and Sanitation to help restore capacity of the JKWTW. We are thrilled that the JKWTW is now fully automated and positioned to ensure that our increased bulk water supply will reach Makhanda residents, obviously with Makana Local Municipality operating the plant as scheduled.”
“We have not only managed to increase the plant capacity from 10ML to 20ML per day since August last year, but we have now completed an essential automation phase to realize that water capacity is available to communities within the Makana Local Municipality,” said Skritch.
Incidentally, a Grocott’s Mail snap survey in Joza has found that there was no truth to reports of uninterrupted water supply in parts of the township.
Meanwhile, without full information from Makana Municipality, we can only speculate that we do not have an uninterrupted water supply because our battered and dilapidated water infrastructure is unable to receive 28 ML of treated water daily. Or that Makana Municipality is trying to cut its electricity bill by pumping for a daytime-only supply?
