Bloemfontein has been plagued with water woes for a couple of years. The drought has only exacerbated the existing challenges related to ageing infrastructure, water quality, and supply constraints. By Nicola Theunissen
aggravated by the drought,” said Minister of Water and Sanitation Nomvula Mokonyane during her budget vote in 2016.
The city’ s important economic role in the province makes the need for short- and long-term interventions and infrastructure roll-out to address the water crisis all the more serious. If the population grows by only 1.2 % per year, the water demand will increase with approximately 30 % over the next 20 years.
Realising the urgency, the municipality has been seeking solutions to relieve water pressure in a bid to address the inevitable: demand exceeding supply.
Addressing continuous challenges
Ageing infrastructure places severe strain on the municipality’ s water system. Apart from water outages, water quality becomes compromised by deteriorating treatment works.
The Department of Water and Sanitation( DWS), Bloemwater, and the MMM released a combined statement late last year, denying allegations and claims that drinking water contains traces of E. coli.
After conducting specialised testing, the authorities announced that the results confirmed that the water supplied to residents met the standards set by South African National Standards( SANS) 241:2015.
Quality is only one aspect of the problem— water supply seems to be the red flag.
Since 1973 when the Welbedacht Dam was completed, it has lost more than 90 % of its storage capacity because networking contributor tech news industry environment infrastructure municipalities
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