Buying a house? Check those tanks first!

The subject of Parra Posts this week is water. The Eastern Cape has always been a water scarce region. There have been numerous occasions when some of the smaller towns like Makhanda have actually run out of water and had to send the school boarders and university students home until it rained and the dams had been replenished. I can remember holidaying at Bushman’s River in the 1950s. Your rental cottage had one small asbestos tank and if you ran out of water you would have to buy more from a local farmer.

There were no baths and washing consisted of one bucket of water to soap yourself and one bucket to rinse off!

We are experiencing what is commonly known as a “green drought”.

There is sufficient rain to keep the veld and forests green but there is insufficient rainfall and runoff to replenish the ground water, resulting in a large number of boreholes not being able to produce water as the water table is too low and the recharge rate is insufficient.

Due to semigration and the increasing population, the demand for water has far exceeded the installed capacity of the small villages and towns in Ndlambe LM.

It is essential that all new houses being built install tanks with a total capacity of more than 75,000 litres.

The current situation in Ndlambe LM is that it is still a declared drought area and the use of hosepipes is still banned and the washing of cars, boats and driveways is prohibited.

The installed production capacity of all Ndlambe LM areas (from Alexandria to Seafield/ Kleinemonde) is just less than 10 ML per day.

The daily water demand out of season is more than 15 ML per day, resulting in a shortfall of 5 ML per day.

This doubles during the peak holiday season to a shortfall of 10 ML per day.

Parra urges all ratepayers and residents to treat water as a scarce commodity and be as water wise as possible.

Please also ask tourists and holidaymakers not to waste water and be as water wise as possible.

Numerous solutions to the Eastern Cape’s water problems have been proposed but none have been implemented.

Ndlambe LM has embarked on a programme of RO plants to purify borehole, sea/river water and recycled water.

Unfortunately the costs of producing potable water from these sources are high and the residents and ratepayers will have to pay far more for water in the future.

Finally, a tip from Parra to all Ndlambe LM prospective new property owners: Please find out how many water tanks are on the property and the capacity of those tanks.

Also, what sort of sewage disposal system does the property have; waterborne, conservancy tanks (which require municipal pump outs) or septic tanks with french drains. Less than 50% of Port Alfred is on waterborne sewage.

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