“This drought is not only a shortage of water — there’s been a drought of ideas.”
Water Research Commission CEO Desigan Naidoo was speaking at the launch of an innovative water treatment works upgrade at the beach resorts of Kenton and Bushman’s River Mouth, just in time for the holiday season.
The guest of honour, human settlements, water & sanitation minister Lindiwe Sisulu opened the upgraded facility.
A year ago, Kenton and Bushman’s River Mouth faced a bleak, dry festive season.
Furious businesses, residents and holiday homeowners demanded to know how water reserves serving Ndlambe’s wards three and four had dropped to 8% on the eve of the popular beach resorts’ economically crucial high-tourism season.
Residents and visitors alike endured severe water restrictions throughout the season.
Now, as the 2019 tourism season kicks in, the area is enjoying a supply boosted by 60%, or 1.4 megalitres, bringing the total supply to 1.8 megalitres a day, thanks to a speedy upgrade of the municipality’s reverse osmosis treatment plant.
The turnaround has been so quick and so remarkable that Sisulu made the trip to see it in operation and hear how the community achieved it.
What she heard was how officials from Ndlambe municipality, Amatola Water, the local business forum, the ratepayers’ associations and the Kenton Development Forum had joined forces to implement a plan that included maintenance and repairing leaks and the Amatola-funded upgrade of the treatment works.
Sisulu was full of praise for the initiative, which has increased the plant’s capacity for abstracting, storing and treating raw water from the Bushman’s River for use by the 11,600 residents of Kenton, Ekumphumleni, Bushman’s River Mouth, Riversbend, Marselle, Bushman’s Extension, Klipfontein And Merryhill.
During the holiday season, Sisulu had been informed, the area’s population triples.
Together with Naidoo, the minister emphasised the importance of the plant’s success as a test case for other communities across SA.
“This process [desalination and reverse osmosis] will become an important sustainable water source for communities across SA — not only coastal communities but also for inland developments whose water sources are brackish. This is extremely significant,” Naidoo said.
“What you have achieved here is a test of what is possible,” Sisulu said.
Bushman’s water treatment plant upgrade shows the way for SA
Image: SUE MACLENNAN
“This drought is not only a shortage of water — there’s been a drought of ideas.”
Water Research Commission CEO Desigan Naidoo was speaking at the launch of an innovative water treatment works upgrade at the beach resorts of Kenton and Bushman’s River Mouth, just in time for the holiday season.
The guest of honour, human settlements, water & sanitation minister Lindiwe Sisulu opened the upgraded facility.
A year ago, Kenton and Bushman’s River Mouth faced a bleak, dry festive season.
Furious businesses, residents and holiday homeowners demanded to know how water reserves serving Ndlambe’s wards three and four had dropped to 8% on the eve of the popular beach resorts’ economically crucial high-tourism season.
Residents and visitors alike endured severe water restrictions throughout the season.
Now, as the 2019 tourism season kicks in, the area is enjoying a supply boosted by 60%, or 1.4 megalitres, bringing the total supply to 1.8 megalitres a day, thanks to a speedy upgrade of the municipality’s reverse osmosis treatment plant.
The turnaround has been so quick and so remarkable that Sisulu made the trip to see it in operation and hear how the community achieved it.
What she heard was how officials from Ndlambe municipality, Amatola Water, the local business forum, the ratepayers’ associations and the Kenton Development Forum had joined forces to implement a plan that included maintenance and repairing leaks and the Amatola-funded upgrade of the treatment works.
Sisulu was full of praise for the initiative, which has increased the plant’s capacity for abstracting, storing and treating raw water from the Bushman’s River for use by the 11,600 residents of Kenton, Ekumphumleni, Bushman’s River Mouth, Riversbend, Marselle, Bushman’s Extension, Klipfontein And Merryhill.
During the holiday season, Sisulu had been informed, the area’s population triples.
Together with Naidoo, the minister emphasised the importance of the plant’s success as a test case for other communities across SA.
“This process [desalination and reverse osmosis] will become an important sustainable water source for communities across SA — not only coastal communities but also for inland developments whose water sources are brackish. This is extremely significant,” Naidoo said.
“What you have achieved here is a test of what is possible,” Sisulu said.
Image: SUE MACLENNAN:
Speaking about the severity of the drought, along with serious fires across the Eastern Cape, and this week’s floods in Tshwane, the minister said: “We can’t turn climate change around, but we can find strategies to deal with it. We must learn to cope with it.”
Amatola Water’s use of desalination and extraction was groundbreaking, she said, and it was being tested in other parts of the Eastern Cape.
- Grocott's Mail
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