Summer season swim joy cut short
[caption id="attachment_222448" align="aligncenter" width="602"] St Georges Park Pool pictured in September 2017. Picture: Tremaine van Aardt[/caption]
The effects of the devastating drought have forced Nelson Mandela Bay to cut back drastically on summer – well, at least as far as cooling off in municipal pools is concerned .
Only five municipal pools will definitely be open for what will be a much shorter than usual summer pool season – just two months, the municipality has said.
The ongoing water crisis in the metro has taken a significant toll on its 19 municipal pools, with just five scheduled to reopen at the end of November, while the cost of opening a further five is still being weighed up.
The remaining nine pools will not open, due to the dire water situation, according to municipal deputy director of pools Desiree Titus.
Yesterday, Weekend Post visited eight municipal pools, several of which were locked up, with notices which read: “Due to stringent water restrictions, this swimming pool is now closed until further notice.”
Behind the locks and chains were near-empty pools with murky green water lining the base.
Titus said the only five pools which had maintained sufficient water levels throughout winter were the Uitenhage, Despatch, KwaNobuhle, Kings Beach and Newton Park municipal pools.
[caption id="attachment_111267" align="aligncenter" width="571"] St Georges Park Pool pictured in November 2015.
Picture: Fredlin Adriaan[/caption]
As a result of the pools being at capacity, “it is simply a matter of adding chemicals”.
The water levels of the Motherwell, Westering, Gelvandale, Zwide and Schauderville municipal pools ranged between a quarter to three quarters full. These pools are allowed to be filled only with bore-hole water as a result of the Bay’s water shortage.
Responding to whether the five additional pools would be opened, Titus said: “It is all still up in the air. We can only refill the pools with bore-hole water from the Oval [athletics track] and Springs Resort outside Uitenhage.
“And we have only one 10 000-litre water tanker which takes about three hours to fill. That water truck costs R220 an hour, so R2 200 per day on average.
“In that time, if you include the offload which is about a hour and a half, they can do only two trips maximum a day. And in an Olympic-size pool like St George’s [Park] where the capacity is 974 000 litres, it would require a lot of trips and money.”
Titus said while using borehole water was a workable solution, the municipality was concerned about the possible adverse consequence to bathers’ skins.
“Bore-hole water is a lot more coarse and rough than tap water and could cause irritation of the skin or worse. But obviously we can’t use tap water as there is barely enough for people to drink, never mind the luxury of a pool.
“We are currently testing the bore-hole water with chemicals to try to find a useable combination as well as the possibility of using saltwater through saltwater bore holes like the ones in KwaNobuhle, but that too is experimental,” Titus said.
The nine pools which will remain closed are St George’s Park, Algoa Park, Malabar, Varsvlei, Kwazakhele, North End, Rosedale, Wells Estate and Chatty.
Municipal spokesman Mthubanzi Mniki said the summer swimming season, which usually runs from October to April, would also be shortened to just December and January to accommodate school holidays.
“The directorate has decided to reduce the pool opening season to two months and has purchased water tanks that are being installed at all pools. However, it is work in progress and we will, where possible, reduce the backwash activity at the pools.”
Mniki said maintenance on pools had started at the end of the previous pool season and since July an amount of R631 000 had been spent on repair and maintenance at different pools.
Titus said the pools department was operating as usual until instructed otherwise by the municipality. “We will put in a proposal to the council, which will decide exactly which pools will stay open and which will close.
“There is always the possibility that the council decides no pools will open, which was a decision taken in 2010 when we had a drought. But the beaches can expect a lot more people this year because of the minimal municipal pools,” Titus said.
A pool superintendent, who asked not to be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media, said: “I hope the powers that be realise in the poorer areas these pools are needed because people here can’t always travel to the beach.
“Also, a big concern is that if these township pools don’t open, these children will end up swimming in dams and lakes and we will have more drownings.”
The combined capacity of the metro’s five feeder dams is now at an overall average of 31.02%.
