NEWS
MAYORAL MESSAGE: WATER RESTRICTIONS LIFTED AS DESIRED IMPACT ACHIEVED
I would like to thank the broader Swellendam and Railton community for their support and compliance with the recently implemented Level 3 water restrictions. The challenge remains that the water consumption by residents can very quickly exceed the municipality’s capacity to purify water. Should we not have taken this measure, the three reservoirs would have run dry and we would most likely have resorted to trucking water to households – a more inconvenient and costly exercise. The water restrictions have had the desired effect and the municipality has retained reservoir levels above 70% for the last three days.
Reservoir readings at 08h17 on 18 February 2022 are as follows;
Water Treatment Works: 69.8%
Bakenskop: 92%
Bethel: 90.9%
Railton: 94.5%
Reserves are needed in the reservoirs for mitigating various incidents so water levels should always be maintained at, or above 70%. Weather predictions for the next 14 days refer to cooler weather expected with temperatures under 30 degrees Celsius, so this should contribute positively to maintaining reservoir levels above 70%.
Much has been said about our poor planning, our mismanagement, weak decision making and budgeting. Nothing could be further from the truth. This year we have a capital budget of R78 million being spent primarily on upgrading water and waste water plants. As we speak the main supply pipeline in Swellendam main town is being replaced with a larger diameter pipe. This is all in preparation for the upgrading of the water supply capacity. All while currently supplying water successfully.
The Swellendam Water Treatment Works is scheduled for an upgrade with the capital budget commencing July 2022. For now, our water purification systems can cope, except for extremely hot days combined with load shedding, which is when our systems prevent us from purifying water at an optimal rate to meet consumption needs. To this end, the municipality has additionally purchased three generators to ensure that water purification is not interrupted. Unfortunately, the generators are still in the process of being commissioned so load shedding still has an impact on our ability to purify water. Once the generators have been commissioned, we do not foresee any interruptions based on the lack of electricity.
Every effort is being made to ensure that basic service delivery continues. In addition, I have decided that we will not implement the punitive 40% penalty on water tariffs as the desired impact has been achieved. However, I do want to emphasize that when we sent out notices to voluntarily reduce water consumption, almost no response was felt. After seven days of struggling to get the reservoirs above 30% we decided to implement the stringent water restrictions. I give you my assurance that these notices are not issued lightly, nor are they issued as a knee-jerk reaction to our challenges. When we appeal to our community it is with a genuine and sincere desire to get the support to reduce water consumption.
Executive Mayor
Francois du Rand
