Crisis is beyond our control, says municipality

The drought and insufficient capacity in the supply line from the Fish River are behind the water crisis in Adelaide and the Amathole district municipality cannot be held responsible for the long-delayed Foxwood Dam, it said.

Amathole municipal spokesperson Noni Vuso said the Fish River supply pipeline had been extended to Bedford in 1998 and Adelaide in 2009.

“It was installed to augment supply to both towns and was never designed to be the only supply.

“No study has been undertaken to upgrade the pipeline yet,” she said.

“However, it is estimated that it would cost in excess of R80m to upgrade it.”

Pressed on concerns about the huge and ongoing raw sewage spill upstream in Cradock and consequent health concerns for Adelaide residents, she said the water was treated at the Bedford and Adelaide treatment works before it was supplied to communities in the two towns.

The water that was being transported in tanker trucks and decanted into tanks in Adelaide’s townships for collection there had been treated in the Fort Beaufort treatment works.

Vuso conceded that the municipality did not have enough tanker trucks to meet this demand, saying the district was huge.

Turning to the borehole strategy, she said Amathole had appointed Gift of the Givers to drill and equip six boreholes for Adelaide at a cost of R1.5m.

“The yield in these boreholes has, unfortunately, dropped.

“The entire [district] is a disaster area due to drought, and the most-affected local municipalities are Mbhashe, Mnquma, Amahlathi and Raymond Mhlaba [Adelaide and Bedford].”

She rejected criticism that the delayed construction of the Foxwood Dam was the district municipality’s fault.

“Construction of dams is a competence of the water and sanitation department,” Vuso said.

Asked about the results of quality tests done on the pipeline water that Raymond Mhlaba proportional representative councillor Ernest Lombard and ratepayers’ association committee member Dave Knoesen said they had requested from Amathole, she asked for proof that the requests had been submitted.

‘No study has been undertaken to upgrade the pipeline yet’ Noni Vuso AMATHOLE SPOKESPERSON