Africa-Press – South-Africa. Municipalities in the Western Cape are scrambling as water reservoirs buckle under the strain of Eskom’s continued implementation of load shedding.
The provincial government held urgent high-level talks on Wednesday evening, in order to urge municipalities to ensure that contingency plans are in place to ease power cuts.
The MEC for Local Government, Anton Bredell, said the continuation of high levels of load shedding over the next 72 hours would affect all municipalities in the province.
“Although most towns have a 48-hour potable water reserve, the reality is that pumps cannot fully replenish reserves in the available hours of Eskom electricity supply at the current load shedding levels. Also, sewage systems are reliant on a continuous flow of water, so the interruptions add to the risk of system blockages and subsequent damage,” he said.
Bredell stressed that lower water reservoir levels also affect the water pressure in water networks – and this might cause low pressure, or no water at all, for some higher-lying neighbourhoods in towns.
‘We could face a crisis’: Western Cape residents urged to save water as load shedding downs plant pumps
“The variation in pressure can also lead to pipe bursts. This is also not a time to throw stones at Eskom management. Let us support them and allow them to do their work,” he said.
Bredell said they would look at all immediate measures to help the current situation.
“Our local government department and disaster management team are playing a crucial role in supporting municipalities in our province by helping them to prepare adequately – and, in some instances, get the equipment they need to ensure the maintenance of critical services, such as water.
“All our municipalities have contingency plans in place, as confirmed at the Extended Cabinet meeting convened by Premier Alan Winde on Wednesday night,” he said.
Towns at risk of experiencing water shortages in the next few days, if sustained load shedding persists at Stages 5 and 6, include Vanrhynsdorp, Laingsburg, Chatsworth, Moorreesberg, Darling, Yzerfontein, Grabouw and De Doorns.
Winde said the provincial government would keep working closely with all municipalities to guide them through the latest energy crisis.
“It is important we continue to plan for all scenarios as mass power cuts persist. The purpose of the Extended Cabinet meeting was to focus on specific service delivery areas, which will be affected if load shedding is prolonged or worsens,” he said.
Municipalities are already preparing themselves as load shedding persists.
The acting municipal manager for the Theewaterskloof local municipality, Boy Manqoba Ngubo, told News24 that Grabouw had intermittent water problems for the past two weeks because of load shedding.
“We are very thankful, as a municipality, to the Local Government MEC and his office. They were able to galvanise some support for us. We have had water tankers from the Overberg district to come and assist us.
“In terms of Caledon, they started having water issues over the weekend, when there was a tree that fell and affected the Eskom transformer, forcing the area to go into prolonged load shedding,” he said.
Ngubo said the dilemma Theewaterskloof faces is that, without electricity, they are unable to pump water from the dams into reservoirs which feed into the homes of residents.
“Over the last few hours, Overberg, which supplies water to Theewaterskloof in Caledon, was able to procure a generator to try and assist in augmenting the shortage of electricity. However, on Thursday morning, there was no water in Caledon, but teams are working on it,” he said.
The deputy mayor of Overstrand, Lindile Ntsabo, said all municipalities had challenges during load shedding.
“However, at the moment, we have enough generators and diesel. The mayor and the municipal manager attended the premier’s Extended Cabinet meeting on Wednesday evening, where they were briefed on the current situation and where risks were discussed,” he said.
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