Water restrictions for Port Alfred, Bathurst

Residents urged to adhere to rules, use as little as possible

Last week Ndlambe Municipality announced further water restrictions for both Port Alfred and Bathurst, with supply reduced to just a few hours a day.

As of last Friday, Port Alfred’s water supply has been limited to 6am to 10am daily, to be able to conserve the dwindling resource.

Not all areas will have felt the impact yet, as low-lying areas would continue to receive water even after the mains were shut off.

For high-lying areas, the impact may be more severe as they will take longer to receive water even after it is turned on again.

In Bathurst, supply has been limited to between 6am to 9am daily. This is a step up from earlier restrictions in which that time frame for supply was only every second day.

“The Eastern Cape is still in the grips of extreme drought conditions. In Ndlambe, Port Alfred and Bathurst have been badly affected as the main source of water, Sarel Hayward and Golden Ridge dams have insufficient water,” municipal manager Rolly Dumezweni said in notices published last week.

Bathurst reached Day Zero at the end of December when the Golden Ridge Dam ran dry.

“Over the past two months, every possibility to supply water to these areas has been explored and implemented. Sadly, we have had no rainfall to speak of to supplement our water supplies, and unfortunately the communities have not reduced their water consumption. Water is used as if the situation is normal,” Dumezweni said.

Work has commenced on the new reverse osmosis (RO) plant for Port Alfred, but production of water from the RO plant is only expected to come into effect towards the end of February.

“In the interim, drastic restrictions need to be implemented to conserve the small amount of water we have available. Thus, as from January 22, the water supply will be open in Port Alfred from 6am – 10am daily only. During the time when water is shut off, the little that we have will be pumped to the respective reservoirs so that when water is available, the reservoirs are able to supply water to all areas.”

Dumezweni said if levels were still dropping at the same rate due to high consumption, more restrictions would be implemented this week.

Water tanks placed throughout Port Alfred are serviced daily and residents could collect water from these sources, he said.

In Bathurst, the original restrictions implemented had limited water supply from 6am to 9am every second day, completely shut off on the days in between to assist in raising reservoir levels.

“This plan is still on implementation, though we have witnessed improvement on reservoir levels which now are at about 70%,” Dumezweni said.

Based on the success rate of this plan, which led to improved water levels in the reservoir, from Monday January 25 to Friday January 29 the water supply will be opened every day from 6am to 9am.

“After Friday [January 29] if there are no drastic changes in the reservoir levels, the plan will be continued and a statement will be issued”as when, he to said. up to

The municipality reminded residents the restrictions imposed in December 2018 due to drought have not been lifted and people must adhere to these restrictions. Failure to adhere to this is affecting everyone in regards to water supply.

The restrictions are as follows: In terms of Section 4 of the Water Services Act 108 (No 108 of 1997) the following will be prohibited immediately.

The use of water obtained from the municipality’s water supply system for:

Watering gardens, lawns, grassed areas, flower beds, sports fields, bowling greens, golf greens and fairways, croquet lawns, turf wickets, ploughing fields and the like;

Topping up or filling fountains, ornamental ponds and the like;

Filling swimming and paddling pools;

Washing paved areas, walls, roofs, building and similar structures.

The use or operation of:

Hosepipes, Sprinklers, sprinkler and drip systems;

Automatic swimming pool filters and automatic urinal flushing systems;

The connection of a hosepipe or any form of irrigation system to a tap supplying water from the municipality ’ s water supply system unless for the purposes permitted in terms of this notice.

Communities are urged to reduce water consumption by at least 50% to conserve the little we have.

Report any leaks to 046-604-5500.