Nelson Mandela Bay’s water crisis may have grabbed headlines around SA as Gift of the Givers drilled boreholes and residents prepared for day zero, but for the first time on Monday, President Cyril Ramaphosa finally came to see things for himself.
Ramaphosa spent most of the day at the Nooitgedacht Water Treatment Works, the city’s state-of-the-art water-supply lifeline.
At the site, Ramaphosa asked dozens of questions about how the plant worked, where the water came from and the diameters of various pipes.
Ramaphosa said he had been impressed by Nooitgedacht and the near-completion of the plant’s phase-three project expansion project — which has been delayed numerous times.
He was also happy about information he had received on the metro’s other intervention measures aimed at pushing back day zero, including concerted efforts to fix all leaks.
Asked if poor management had not been a key contributor to the water crisis, with drought and climate change, he said there had been a number of contributors, including some missed opportunities.
“But we are going to address those issues now in conjunction with business and other role players to understand them better and then to move forward in a positive way,” he said.
Ramaphosa’s visit comes as thousands of leaks are finally being plugged in the city.
The metro’s water-saving joint operations committee revealed on Monday that 9,719 leaks had been repaired since June 25 when the “war on leaks” initiative started.
Contractors will tackle a further 712 leaks this week.
Clad in gumboots, gloves and mask and wielding a long pair of tongs, Ramaphosa spent a sweaty half-an-hour next to a stinking rivulet in the parched Chatty River basin, seeking to plant a seed.
Flanked by water and sanitation minister Senzo Mchunu, mayor Eugene Johnson and premier Oscar Mabuyane, Ramaphosa dug deep and produced an assortment of plastic and other rubbish from the stream while excited Veeplaas residents looked on.
To the crowd’s merriment, with Johnson, he did a slow gumboot dance on a large sack oozing smelly water to help reduce its size to allow for easy removal by a waiting team of municipal workers.
The president’s visit to Veeplaas was aimed at commemorating Mandela Day and followed his tour earlier at Nooitgedacht.
But Ramaphosa said the trash-encrusted Chatty River pointed to the broader problem of people not protecting their natural resources.
“I hope I have planted a seed and sent a message to the people of Nelson Mandela Bay that they must start taking care of their surroundings and resources.
“The city is filthy and it needs to be cleaned up.
“This is relatively easy if we work in unison and I hope that can happen here and it can be the beginning of a huge national campaign to make this city and this country proud.”
Bay water and sanitation executive director Barry Martin said the final electronic work on phase three at Nooitgedacht should be finished by the end of September.
This would allow the 200ML/d volume being treated to increase to 210ML/d.
Before Ramaphosa arrived, Mchunu led a tour of the metro’s Coega Kop borehole and water treatment works.
Martin explained how geological mapping identified where they should drill to hit the Uitenhage Artesian Basin which held water that had seeped down from the Grootwinterhoekberge over thousands of years.
“When this project is completed in September, five production boreholes will deliver 12ML/d and this supply will be treated to remove the manganese and iron before it is pumped up to our Coega Kop reservoir to be made available for the Bay via Motherwell and also the Coega Special Economic Zone.”
Starting the day’s activity, Mchunu was also on hand at the unveiling of Coca-Cola’s borehole and treatment facility in Area Q in Walmer Township and Gift of the Giver’s borehole at the Elizabeth Donkin Psychiatric Hospital in Forest Hill.
Thanking the company and the organisation, Mchunu said the two events emphasised the power of public-private partnerships as a mechanism to beat the water crisis.
“Great progress is being made, but residents must realise that even as more boreholes are brought on line we will not be relaxing our restrictions.
“We have to keep our consumption down and protect this supply into the future.”
In a separate event, Gift of the Givers also unveiled a borehole at Walmer High School.
This was the 13th borehole dug by the organisation while also expanding three others and resuscitating four, with three owned by the municipality.
The organisation has added five-million litres a day of water to the city.
Gift of the Givers founder Dr Imtiaz Sooliman said he had hoped that Ramaphosa would attend the event.
“We said it would be fine if he is available and can make it, but that we would understand if he cannot.
“We did not want to add pressure and were not expecting him to come.
“If he came, it would have been a bonus.”
Drilling at the school started on Friday, with the team led by Martyn Landmann.
They bored 208m deep and there are plans to dig up to 240m to increase the yield from 4,000 to 10,000 litres an hour.
Landmann said work on the Walmer High School borehole was nearly finished except for some cleaning that needed to be done and PVC lining that had to be installed, and this should be finished on Tuesday.
Sooliman said his organisation had come to the city after being approached by the municipality and the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber.
“They called in the last week of May, saying they would like to talk to us to look at ways in which we could assist.”
He said after initial meetings, Gift of the Givers had come to town to start drilling boreholes.
“I came down and had an excellent meeting with the municipality.
“They were welcoming and there was no obstruction or bureaucracy.”
HeraldLIVE
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