Alarm over water challenge in Hammanskraal

THE portfolio committee on human settlements, water and sanitation has instructed all spheres of government to come up with a preliminary intervention to deal with the continuing water challenge in Hammanskraal, in the City of Tshwane. The committee visited the area to ascertain if there are concrete plans to resolve the problem.

The committee is concerned that there was a general agreement that the situation, especially at the Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Plant, has deteriorated.

It has found out that the plant continues to dump untreated water with possible environmental impact on the Apies River. The committee highlighted the fact that dumping of the untreated water has a potential health hazard to the residents that rely on the Bon Accord Dam that serves the residents of Hammanskraal.

Committee chairperson Machwene Semenya said the reason it gave all three spheres of government instructions to intervene was because it found out that there was no chlorine at the plant, which meant that the water was not disinfected before it was recycled back into the river system.

The possible health risk is that water-borne diseases can be spread not only to the people of Tshwane, but downstream to the North West and the entire river system.

The committee is alarmed by the possible emission of methane gas at the sludge tank, which has a potential health risk and possible death. The government must find ways to deal with this.

The situation is directly linked to the lack of planning that has failed to take into consideration the growing trajectory of urban areas. Furthermore, the lack of maintenance plans has resulted in obsolete technology and parts of the plant that are not working.

In the medium and long term, the committee has instructed all spheres of government to draft a detailed plan on how this matter will be resolved.

This plan should have clear budgetary requirements to deal with the matter holistically.

The committee has committed to visit Gauteng again because of the re-occurrence of this challenge in Gauteng following the challenges in the Vaal. MALATSWA MOLEPO | Parliamentary Communication Services