Port Alfred water supply update: Monday 11 July
Ndlambe Municipality issued a statement on 4 July about water outages in Port Alfred, mostly as a result of loadshedding. That information is included at the end of this article. Since then, residents have experienced further and more extensive outages. Talk of the Town asked Ndlambe Municipality why things had become worse, and when the situation might improve.
Below is a summary of the explanation from Infrastructure Director Dr Noluthando Vithi about breakages and breakdowns since 4 July. If testing under way is successful, it is expected that supply via the 2 megalitre reverse osmosis (RO) plant could resume today [Monday 11 July].
Burst pipes
In addition to the interrupted pumping and damage to electrical equipment that loadshedding has caused, there have been two burst pipes.
The first was repaired on Thursday 7 July. On Friday 8 July, a second pipe burst that feeds water from the Sarel Hayward reservoir to the water treatment works. Ndlambe had to source an excavator and get it to the site in order to begin this repair.
More detail about breakdowns at the 2ML QFS reverse osmosis (RO) plant
Early June – 25 June:
A breakdown followed by a serious leak kept the plant out of operation. Repairs were completed, but an electrical fault prevented technicians from starting the pump.
The cause is a variable speed drive (VSD), an electronic device that regulates the power supply to the motor and is essential to prevent catastrophic damage to it. It is unusual for a VSD to fail and it is due to frequent switching on and off of the power supply during loadshedding. Because it’s an unusual breakdown, the municipality does not keep spares on site and these had to be sourced and brought in.
What is being done to resolve this?
By 4pm on Friday 8 July, the new VSD for the RO high-pressure (HP) pump was being offloaded on site. The technical team was on site. In addition, two new VSDs for the abstraction pumps were installed.
When will this system start operating again?
The engineer said checks would be carried out following installation and the pumps would be restarted after that.
Update late on Sunday 11 July
The work was completed and the software loaded. There were no error messages.
The contractor was preparing the system for pumping to restart.
“We will only be able to confirm success if fully tested.”
NDLAMBE MUNICIPALITY’S 4 JULY GENERAL STATEMENT ABOUT THE WATER SHORTAGE IN PORT ALFRED
Stage 6 loadshedding is the major contributor to this challenge in Port Alfred:
* Every stage of Port Alfred’s water process requires power – from source to treatment plant; at the treatment plant; from treatment plant to distribution lines.
* During loadshedding there are fewer hours during which water can be pumped to the treatment plant, from all sources During loadshedding, almost all the pumps associated with bulk water treatment and supply are down: there is little or no water getting to the treatment works or distribution lines.
Port Alfred normally gets its water from:
* Sarel Hayward Dam
* RO plant: 2ML/day
* RO Plant: 1ML/day
* Central belt boreholes
* Hennie Nel boreholes
All these usually feed the water treatment plant and all of these are affected by loadshedding.
*What is being done to alleviate the problems leading to the water shortages?*
- A contractor is on site replacing the damaged control panel at the 2ML/day RO plant [this was on 4 July: see above information for update];
- Ndlambe’s senior management has lodged an appeal to Eskom for the section of the grid that serves the two RO plants to be exempted from loadshedding;
- The municipality has purchased six generators. Generators have been installed in some of the pump stations extracting water from Sarel Hayward Dam; however, the RO plants require a huge amount of power and so it’s not possible to have generators in those supply systems;
- The municipality is carting was to strategically placed communal water tanks. Water trucks will continue carting water to service the affected areas;
- Residents can purchase water to fill their private household tanks. To arrange this, please call 046 604 5500.
