It’s ‘safe to drink’

Ndlambe Municipality assures Port Alfred residents on water quality

Ndlambe Municipality has assured Port Alfred residents that the tapwater is safe to drink. This affirmation was stated with confidence by infrastructural development director Noluthando Vithi-Masiza and repeated by manager of water Enoch Jobela at a media briefing last Thursday on the state of water in Port Alfred.

This follows numerous complaints from residents about the dirty water coming out of their taps and an accompanying chemical and vegetable odour which some people said made them nauseous.

In recent weeks, residents have posted photos of the brown and yellow water coming out of the taps on Talk of the Town’s Facebook group. Many said they had suffered skin irritations from bathing or showering in the water.

Present at the briefing with Vithi-Masiza and Jobela, were infrastructure deputy directors Thulani Maluleka and Sipho Babama, community protection services director Nombulelo Booysen-Willy and communications officer Cecil Mbolekwa.

Vithi-Masiza said there were water shortages as a result of drought and they could even be attributed to the water table dropping due to borehole drilling in the Makana area.

She said Kowie River levels were so low at the Waters Meeting weir that the

municipality was pumping water directly from the Sarel Hayward Dam, which is a storage dam and not on the river.

She said as of April 4, the dam level was at 40%, having dropped a staggering 20% in just three days from the 60% measured on April 1.

She attributed this in part to schools reopening and using water.

“We’re sucking up everything that’s settled in the dam, including the algae,” Vithi-Masiza said.

She also said the municipality was bypassing the balancing dam just outside Port Alfred, something already established by Talk of the Town when we visited the balancing dam a few weeks ago, as the pump and sluice is inactive and the water level there is so low even the bases of the measuring pillars are exposed.

“We’re pumping directly to the water treatment works,” Vithi-Masiza said, explaining that the downside of bypassing the balancing dam was that the water was not getting aeration.

Rather, water had to be aerated at the water treatment works.

Jobela explained the process, saying in pre-chlorination HTH chips were added to the water and then flocculent, called Polly, which addressed the turbidity of the water, drawing together the impurities which sink to the bottom while the water is in holding tanks. After that, the water goes through a sand filter and granular chlorine is added before the final stage of gas chlorine and from there to the reservoirs.

Booysen-Willy said water from the water treatment works tested a zero count for E.coli and faecal coliforms when samples were taken on April 1, providing a copy of the results to Talk of the Town.

While admitting that the colour of the water was “still a challenge”, Vithi-Masiza did not address the smell of the water.

She did however say: “The results told the water is fit for human consumption.”

She was echoed by Jobela who said: “Our water is consumable, as the director said.”

The municipality had no chemical analysis results of the tapwater, but Booysen-Willy said these tests were being done and the results would be available soon.

Vithi-Masiza said the central boreholes would supply an additional 0.8ML a day and the municipality was also upgrading the dune wells on the East Bank which would provide 0.4ML.

She said Amatola Water’s bulk water scheme, including the “quick wins”, remained incomplete, and funding was a problem.

“We are praying for rain – without rain we’re in trouble,” she said.