Boreholes mooted with no quick fix seen for water crisis

WITH only two weeks to go before Nelson Mandela Bay’s water supply capacity is increased at its Nooitgedacht treatment plant, councillors have called for a more concerted focus on boreholes to relieve the metro’s water woes.

The completion of the second phase of the Nooitgedacht Low Level Scheme would increase the city’s water supply by 50 megalitres a day.

It is on schedule to be completed by July 31, while construction on the third and final phase started in May.

It is set to cost more than R400million and will be completed by February 2019.

But the metro’s deputy director of bulk water services, Chandre Barnard, who briefed councillors yesterday on the state of the drought, said while the additional supply from the completion of Phase 2 would bring much-needed relief to water demand, the city was far from being out of the red.

He was speaking at the infrastructure and engineering committee meeting. Barnard revealed that while the water and sanitation department had increased water restrictions to 25% for domestic and industrial users, and up to 60% for irrigation users, the usage was still too much.

The metro was still over-extracting.

“This 25% restriction means nothing if the [Churchill] dam is empty because we would have restricted ourselves 100%.

“This morning [yesterday], the Churchill Dam was the lowest it has ever been, at 8.65%,” he said.

But Barnard said consumption had dropped by 40ML since July last year, which was a substantial amount.

However, last month saw the lowest rainfall in 20 years, with only 2.5mm recorded.

He warned that should the Churchill Dam run dry, the entire Nooitgedacht system worth R360million so far could be lost as they would not be able to extract from it.

However, councillors called for the city to focus on much cheaper alternatives, such as boreholes, as a possible solution. The underground water projects are estimated to cost about R170-million, while a desalination plant could cost about R13-million per megalitre of water.

DA councillor Thobani Noqoli questioned if the city was really in a crisis if boreholes were still a viable option. “If we have less than 365 days of water left and we know that this is the cheapest way, why do we focus on desalination, which is extremely expensive?” he said.

“Why don’t we make boreholes our major focus in the interim while we explore desalination during this drought?

“Desalination is very expensive and if we are able to get this natural water, why don’t we focus on boreholes?” Noqoli said.

Planning and research director Laure Pieterse said boreholes along with the Nooitgedacht plant would serve only half of the households in the metro.

“With boreholes in place, an additional 20ML a day would be supplemented,” she said.

“If the western sources dry up, the challenge would be entirely dependent on the Nooitgedacht site, which means we cannot get it to the other households.”

Infrastructure, engineering and energy political head Annette Lovemore said drilling boreholes was an exciting venture, but the challenges had to be considered.

“We recently didn’t get Nooitgedacht water because the canal collapsed and those areas in the western side could not get water,” she said.

Lovemore said a drought task team would be formed and would work on an intense action plan to deal with the water crisis.

‘ The Churchill Dam was the lowest it has ever been at 8.65%

INADEQUATE infrastructure and skills shortages need to be addressed to prevent the water crisis in Africa from spiralling out of control.

Delegates from across the continent said yesterday that African states needed to support and uplift each other to address water-related challenges instead of relying on others to solve the problems.

Some 30 water experts met in Port Elizabeth yesterday for the second day of the International Hydrology Programme (IHP) Africa National Committees Meeting, to unpack ways to combat a looming water disaster.

The regional chairwoman of the Unesco IHP for South Africa, Deborah Mochotlhi – who is a deputy director-general in the Department of Water and Sanitation – said the objective of the meeting was to take stock of and implement policies and programmes to address water-related issues.

“The knowledge we share is [on] what we must do to be water secure.”

According to Mochotlhi, member states share common challenges, including capacity building, and a lack of awareness and financing to push through programmes.

“The IHP is about water management [and should be] integrated into [respective] water ministries,” she said.

Unesco’s chief of section on hydrological systems and water scarcity, Abou Amani, said globally countries’ economic activities relied on water and a global framework was needed to assist water-scarce countries.

“We need to understand all dynamics of the water cycle. We need to bring everyone into this,” he said.

Other recommendations made included strengthening national policies dealing with water, mapping of transboundary aquifers in specific regions, and twinning programmes.

The head of science at Unesco’s Southern Africa regional office, Dr Peggy Oti-Boateng, said South Africa had done well in addressing water issues.

“South Africa is identified as a champion in driving water-related programmes through the IHP,” she said.