An emergency meeting was called on Tuesday for concerned residents to air their grievances with Amatola Water, Ndlambe Municipality, the Kenton-on-Sea Ratepayers’ Association (KOSRA), and the Kenton Chamber of Business, the South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO) and other stakeholders.
The immediate problem was recognised as being a valve which should have been opened and wasn’t. This was rectified during the meeting and water flowed again in Kenton.
After two hours of technical and colloquial discussions, the chair from Ndlambe Municipality, Thulane Maluleka, resolved to call an urgent meeting with the CEO of Amatola Water, the municipal manager, the mayor and the technical committee to discuss the way forward for the water crisis in the area.
Maluleka then summarised the outcomes of the meeting as follows :
Long-term Solutions
- Boreholes on farms 10km away – a possible solution.
- Inject funding to improve the infrastructure.
- Expand the reverse osmosis (RO) plant.
Short-term Solutions
- Replace the faulty valve gate which resulted in no water in Kenton on Tuesday.
- Tighten water restrictions.
- Undertake an education campaign for all residents.
- Enforce bylaws for high consumption users.
- Assist businesses who are badly affected with lack of water supply.
- Invite retired civil and water engineers on to the technical committee, who can assist Ndlambe Municipality to address the technical issues.
Consumption in Kenton remains extremely high and, with the reduced production, the levels of all reservoirs remain constrained.
It is imperative that each and every resident takes it on themselves to conserve water and investigate household water storage solutions for their homes. We all need to become more self-sufficient.