“I fear that we are not taking this seriously” and “Councillors slam Bay’s water leaks crisis” (Herald, August 27 2018) must rank as understatements of the year.
As Port Elizabeth and its surrounds suffer a continuous drought with water restrictions imposed on all metered and paying consumers – not as a water preservation method but rather an income-generating measure – our city managers are playing political chairs and the overpaid engineering department flounders in a sea of incapacity, blaming their tools as the reason for doing zilch about the impending disaster facing us all.
All that is being done by municipal managers is to rely on information displays in the form of road signs stating, “Use water sparingly” while sitting with folded arms or working on their 2019 election campaigns.
Consumers are told to use no more than 50 litres of water per day and business is told to recycle water at their own cost.
Meanwhile, the indigent is given 8kl/month of water free of charge (267 litre of water/day per household) resulting in them not being motivated to save water.
This “free” water is paid for by cross-subsidising those paying for water, who in turn are set a target consumption by the NMBM lower than that of the indigent.
All the above against a backdrop of wasting 35%-plus of our expensively purified water due to a lack of maintenance by the NMBM of all our irreplaceable infrastructure over the past 24 years.
The belated attempt at catching up with maintenance of the water reticulation by employing “plumbers”, “without transport” and “without generators”, serves only to reinforce my view of the city being governed by a circus consisting mainly of clowns.
Why the NMBM chooses to have consultants oversee indigent household leaks (20mm HDPE) and not the main large bore reticulation, is beyond me. This is not high-tech work and if supervised, 43 “plumbers” without generators, but with only compression couplers and a roll of HDPE pipe should be able to walk through a township fixing the “more than 9,000” leaks at a rate of 80 per day, not nine per month!
As for the current illegally appointed engineering consultants; you should hang your heads in shame for putting profit ahead of the so-called ethics you swore to uphold in your various codes of conduct. You are as much to blame as the NMBM and you have placed serious doubt on your suitability to administer contracts between the NMBM and contractors in an unbiased manner and in accordance with the statutory conditions of contract.
With the massive loss of potable water due to leaks, embarking on persecuting consumers is a path of diminishing returns.
Even if all paying consumers shut off their water main connections, the wastage factor will rise to 100% with some 200Ml, or enough water for 4 million people at 50 litres /day, will still be going to waste.
No matter how much additional raw water we can source, we cannot waste funds on purifying 200Ml of water per day and then throw it down the drain.
Forget about modern, expensive RO processes which will become monkeys on the ratepayers’ backs; you cannot even maintain simple purification systems.
My suggestion is that you immediately appoint consultants (legitimately) and capable contractors (on a rate basis) using an emergency procurement clause to award search-and-repair contracts for all water leaks on the main reticulation and reservoirs.
Simultaneously install remote logging meters on all branch lines and purchase water management software to get the situation back under control. Beg, borrow or steal funds (from other budget votes – not the taxpayers again) if you must.
Thereafter maintain the system and stop blaming “old infrastructure” or “apartheid” as cover for your personal inability.
- Hennie Wepener, Walmer