The Kimberley Prospector

Community members in Kimberley took to social media on Saturday morning as some do not have water.

Residents who were left high and dry without notice about the situation, posted on social media asking for updates and what excuses the Sol Plaatje Municipality have for dry taps this weekend.

City’s dire water situation

Community leader Tumelo Mosikare says they have visited the Newton Reservoir during the week to see for themselves the “low levels” being reported by the municipality.

He says: “The situation at Newton is dire as all the dams are low, the two big ones being the lowest as they basically never get a chance to fill up.’

According to Mosikare the supply to the city (town areas) mainly gets their supply from the two small reservoirs. He says these get depleted during the day and are partially refilled at night while the big ones barely get any water. 

The situation from all reports received seems to have been created by a lesser supply of water to the city over time. Added to it by the increase in demand due to high temperatures, which is not the main reason for ‘demand’, he says.

Riverton Water Purification Plant

According to an interview of Councillor Ockert Fourie, the Riverton plant has technical challenges and has not been fully operational since September 2020, says Mosikare.

This resulted in less water that was extracted from the River being cleaned and sent to Kimberley. Shut down of the water supply between December and January, when there were electrical faults and pipe repairs resulting in the levels at Newton to decreased to the current state. 

Newton Reservoir

Mosikare says because Newton only supplies water in town areas the supply for Galeshewe, Roodepan, Homevale and other suburbs could seem “perfect” while other areas would have a challenge in supply or no supply at all.

If the pumps at Newton are left running when there is not enough water in the reservoirs, they will end up pumping air into the pipes and eventually break down. To prevent this they are switched off when the levels are too low. 

The water received during this time is water that remained in the pipes which flows at low pressure that could be available in some areas and while other areas are left completely dry not available at all in others. 

Possible “Solution”, but first municipality must come clean

Mosikare says it would be best for the Municipality to just come clean first and second deal with the main problem with us fully aware of what is being done.

“The best possible way of solving the water crisis would be for the water to be shut off earlier to all areas, including unaffected areas for the supply to be directed only to the reservoir. And for the water supply to be switched off at 17:00 instead of 20:00 in an attempt to fill the big dams at Newton gradually, however it would take time.”

Mosikare says the problem with the proposal is that the municipality does not know how much water gets to the reservoir overnight when all areas are shut off. This is why they are unable to say exactly when the problem will be resolved. 

“Strangely though, without the technology or meter to observe water entering the reservoir, it should be possible to look at the level meter at night when all valves are closed for households, and look at it again in the morning before the valves are opened.”

It should be possible to calculate how much water was pumped into the reservoir overnight and to estimated how many days it would take to fill them all up.

However, they started off on the wrong foot by lying and have had to continue doing so,” concludes Mosikare.