WEATHER GURU | It seems that our water woes are here to stay

I doubt whether any of our metro residents have not in some or other way been affected by water or electricity outages over the last few months.

Anger and frustration levels must be at an all-time high, with outages now becoming the norm rather than the exception.

I had to comment on a posting last week which listed all the areas “operating under severe strain, making it highly vulnerable to any operational interruption”.

This was stated by the metro.

I counted the number of wards, and it amounted to a staggering 46.

I could not help commenting that it would be better and easier to list the areas not affected by water outages.

According to a fact check my assistant did, there are 60 distinct municipal wards.

In other words, about 77% of our metro was affected.

One of the reasons I am often referred to as the “Profit of Doom” by not only the public, but also many officials in the metro, is because I constantly warned of damages to infrastructure after flooding events.

Whenever I connect with ex-mayor Retief Odendaal, he always refers to me by the same name stemming from all the dire warnings I gave during the drought.

I explicitly warned that though we could have dams overflowing, there would more than likely be extended periods of water outages and poor-quality water due to damaged infrastructure.

After our local floods, I was awaiting politicians and some officials to use the “climate change” card to say that the flooding event could not be planned for.

Alternatively, to say that this was a very rare event and use the excuse of climate change for their not heeding the long-term warnings and taking proactive precautions.

This did not happen and instead, all the electricity and water woes were simply blamed on the floods.

The amount of information about water and electricity flowing out of the communications department of the metro, is comparable to the amount of water flowing out of our taps and electricity flowing into our suburbs.

Besides informing the public of electrical outages, with no time frame given, caused by substations tripping, no further explanations are offered.

It is only logical that the public should question why there are all these trips on substations.

Is this an Eskom or a metro problem? Alas, there is only a deathly silence emanating from City Hall.

The metro offered a few reasons for the water woes concerning availability and quality in recent weeks, after the floods.

The first is said to be the high turbidity (suspended particles/sediment) in raw water sources.

This is valid, as tons of debris was washed into the dams by the flood waters, but this excuse cannot be used indefinitely.

The second reason was power supply interruptions, and once again, it must be asked is this a municipal or an Eskom issue.

I did not read any reports of damage to infrastructure, such as fallen pylons from the last devastating gale or the recent floods.

The third reason is chemical supply challenges, as the metro puts it.

Not having a sufficient supply of chemicals is an administrative issue and was most definitely not caused by any severe weather event.

Naturally there is no accountability on this score either.

The fourth reason is the most illogical and ludicrous of them all, namely excessive water consumption.

With half of the metro not having regular supply and the other half only having a trickle of water flowing from their taps, one must ask where all the water is going that is being blamed on over consumption.

The Van Stadens pipeline in 1981 (David Raymar )

The 7,000 outstanding water leaks could be a point of departure and the most obvious place to investigate.

This is possibly due to only 38% of the water leaving the water treatment plant being billed.

That means that 62% of the water leaving the plant is unbilled and considered as non-revenue water, according to my source.

The biggest and most important reason not conveyed to the public is the lack of maintenance of the entire water reticulation system, from pipes to pump stations.

The floods cannot be blamed for lack of maintenance.

Unfortunately, without accountability, this situation will not be remedied soon.

In the bigger scheme of things, we were extremely lucky that the floods were not as severe as the 1968 or 1981 floods and did not cause real damage to major infrastructure as it did in those years.

I chatted to an acquaintance, David Raymer, who is the the ex-water engineer of the metro and author of Stream of Dreams, about the history of the metro’s water reticulation system through the years and I gained some interesting insights.

No damage was caused to the main supply lines from the western dams, such as Maitland and Van Stadens pipeline, which was compromised in 1964, 1979 and 1981.

According to David, this is because the infrastructure was better engineered after past floods.

My question is, how long will these lines last without regular maintenance?

I shudder to think what would happen if that pipeline or the one going over the Gamtoos River was severely damaged.

Work on the Van Staadens pipeline in 1981 (David Raymar )

Given that our metro cannot fill potholes, keep the streetlights on, fix the traffic lights, repair a simple few water leaks or manage to order and buy chemicals, repairing those pipelines would certainly be a nightmare for both the metro and the residents.

What is the solution for residents?

Without getting into any political arguments, the problem is a top-down snowball effect that will not change unless there is a major change in the body politic.

Voters must hold council accountable. Until that happens infrastructure woes will continue.

In this regard, the city fathers have not been questioned as to why we are still being charged punitive water tariffs imposed at the height of the drought, when our dams are overflowing.

Furthermore, the hosepipe bans and other water restrictions are still in place.

Unfortunately, its everybody for themselves and each citizen must fend for themselves.