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The Democratic Alliance (DA) demands that Sol Plaatje municipality urgently institute the long overdue Kimberley water shutdown for repair work on major leaks.

Last week, the city reimposed nightly water shutdowns. Subsequent oversight inspections conducted yesterday by myself and DA councillors Chris Whittaker, George Joseph and Christopher Phiri, have revealed the critical state of Sol Plaatje’s water infrastructure.

We discovered 13 major freshwater leaks. Given that we were not able to inspect certain areas due to marshy conditions and reed overgrowth, there are probably many more. This is in addition to the hundreds of medium to small potable water leaks across the city.

One of the leaks is from a pipeline at the Newton Reservoir itself. It has been flooding sporting facilities at Northern Cape High School for thirteen years and is causing untold damage to the school swimming pool, netball courts, field, and school structure.

Another leak remains unattended to outside of the Riverton Pump Station, at the Water Purification Plant. A water pump and sandbags are being used to mitigate effects of flooding to the pump house.

Water was also gushing out from an off-shoot of the 600mm supply line to farmers adjacent to N12. Lakes of fresh water in the veld are testament to the large volumes of water that are going to waste.

The 13 major water leaks that we exposed are in stark contrast to a report provided by Sol Plaatje last week, wherein they refer to only two major water leaks. Either the municipality is purposefully turning a blind eye to the critical state of the city’s water infrastructure, or they do not have the capacity to monitor leaks.

Eleven of the leaks we came across required a full water shutdown to be able to repair the broken pipes.  This year, Sol Plaatje already postponed the scheduled shutdown twice due to a combination of poor planning and a lack of communication.

Residents are now feeling the effects of the delayed major repair work, given the need for nightly water shutdowns. If repair work doesn’t take place very soon, residents may face a disaster by way of an unscheduled water shutdown.

Failure to comply with deadlines for the water upgrade and repair project is also in violation of set grant conditions and could cause the municipality to risk losing the R2 billion allocation from the Water Services Infrastructure Grant (WSIG), or at least a part thereof.

I have reported the DA’s findings to the Municipal Manager. The DA will also present the discovery of the additional major leaks to the utilities committee on Thursday, as we call for urgent major repair work to be implemented.

Issued by Ockert Fourie, Cllr - Sol Plaatje Municipality