Africa-Press – Namibia. MARIENTAL residents in the Hardap region are demanding a lower rate for alleged unpurified water provided to residents since December.
However, Franklin Kavita, the area manager for NamWater’s southern business unit, says the water provided to residents has never been unfit for human consumption.
This includes the period when the Hardap reservoir purification plant was not operating optimally.
“The water has always been safe for human consumption and it was being purified, though not to optimum level, but within the range.
“We received some parts in January and have done the necessary maintenance. The reservoirs have also been cleaned, and since last week the water quality grading is back to an A,” Kavita says.
Resident Walter von Watsdorf says the town has been supplied with unpurified water since the Hardap purification plants sand filters became faulty last year.
NamWater last year, when the town faced a water shortage, told residents one of the sand filters at the Hardap purification plant was not in operation due to the incorrect delivery of filter sand.
It said it expected the required deliveries in mid-January.
“As residents we feel it is unfair of the council to expect us to pay the same rate we pay for purified water. We feel the council should be willing to reduce the rate when the quality it is providing is not the agreed standard,” Von Watsdorf says.
He says he has noted multiple cases of diarrhoea and stomach ailments reported by community members, although they cannot be described as severe.
The residents have drafted a petition due to the risks unpurified water provision poses to residents, he says.
The petition was delivered to the town council on Monday. “I delivered the petition on behalf of the residents and met with the chief executive officer and the mayor, even though we have started seeing the water quality improving.
“We are not satisfied with the answer as they noted they cannot reduce the tariff on their end, but NamWater [can]. We feel we do not have an agreement with NamWater though, but with the council,” Von Watsdorf says.
Mariental chief executive officer Paul Nghiwilepo says it is impossible for the council to lower tariffs for residents as the water quality provided was still safe for human consumption – despite being a yellowish colour.
“There were complaints about the water and sporadic illnesses.
NamWater did a test on the water quality, and the municipality also did an independent test. NamWater’s finding was that the water was B-grade. Our test did not show a negative grading on the water,” he says. Nghiwilepo says the council cannot approach NamWater without proof of the substandard quality of water.
“If people in the Mariental area could bring us samples with results that proved that it is unfit [for human conssumption], we will gladly take it to NamWater and address the matter. But in the absence of that we cannot,” he says.
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