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The Democratic Alliance (DA) has requested an urgent meeting with the Sol Plaatje Municipal Manager, following serious concerns regarding the municipality’s critical lack of preparedness for the emergency water shutdown in Kimberley.

Numerous institutions have reportedly run out of water, placing strain on old age homes, hospitals, clinics, the fire brigade, businesses and households amid a local heatwave. Some communities have even blocked roads in protest to divert water trucks to their area.

At the root of this crisis is Sol Plaatje’s ongoing lack of routine monitoring and maintenance of the water pipelines in addition to their failure to ensure that the water levels at Newton Reservoir’s mass storage facility were at maximum capacity. This is despite residents previously having suffered nightly and afternoon water shutdowns to increase water levels.

Knowing full well that their actions could result in a water shutdown at any given moment, Sol Plaatje has proven unprepared to mitigate the water crisis. Sol Plaatje only has a single water tanker in operation. Of the 14 flat-bed trucks with Jo-Jos, only 11 are immediately available to serve the municipality’s 33 wards. Due to Newton Reservoir having run dry, trucks also have to travel the extended distance to Riverton to refill on water, unduly adding a significant time delay in water provision, in addition to extra fuel costs to be carried by Sol Plaatje.

Differing information shared in council, and shared with the media, has also created confusion as to the whether the expected time for restoration of water is Friday or Saturday. Communication with the public is also poor, with Sol Plaatje last having shared a water update with residents a full 24-hours ago.

Given the use of a drone to establish the whereabouts of the leaks, the DA is questioning the whereabouts of the municipality’s highly touted smartball, that is meant to detect leaks. In addition, we want to know why the Roodepan leak is only being repaired now, given that it was already reported to the municipality during mid-October. The Midlands leak was repaired during the last shutdown, raising doubts as to the quality of workmanship.

The DA attempted to meet with the MM today, but he has been unable to meet with us. We will nonetheless persevere until we get the opportunity to personally raise all our concerns with him.

This includes the purpose of the previously instituted twice-daily water shutdowns, given their lack of impact on water reserves, as well as the municipality’s lack of preparedness. We will also again insist on a mitigation plan to be drawn-up with the input of all opposition councillors. Given the likelihood of more emergency shutdowns, this is essential.

The DA further wants to make it clear that we will not adhere to the authoritarian oversight restrictions being imposed on councillors, by blocking us from entering key water sites where repairs are underway and insisting that we must wait for a Mayco oversight to be led by the Speaker, after the emergency shutdown is completed. We will not neglect our duty to ensure oversight of water infrastructure and will be checking repair sites and water distribution sites, as well as assisting with water provision, until this crisis is resolved.

Issued by Ockert Fourie, Cllr - Sol Plaatje Municipality