Madibeng communities experiencing water interruptions due to the municipality’s failure to maintain purification plant

26 January 2021

For years, the communities of Schoemansville, Kosmos and Melodie have been experiencing water interruptions as a result of Madibeng Local Municipality’s failure to regularly maintain the Schoemansville water extraction site and purification plant.

The DA conducted an oversight inspection and found two extraction pumps which are connected unprotected, none of the v-belts protection covers are properly fitted on the pumps, leaving them exposed to any elements that may cause obstruction damage.

The third extraction pump is not connected to electricity and cannot serve as a backup pump.

There are only two distribution pumps on-site, one pump is used to feed the two reservoirs in Schoemansville, while the other pump feeds the Kommandonek reservoir that supplies water to the Kosmos area.

The plant was designed to have six distribution pumps, two pumps that feed the Schoemansville reservoirs and two that feeds the Kommandonek reservoir with a back-up pump for each section and to allow for rotation of the pumps.

The DA was also informed that a service provider is withholding several pumps due to non-payment by the municipality, this includes a distribution pump for the Schoemansville purification plant. We were also informed that the electrical panel at the distribution station has to be upgraded before any additional pumps can be installed.

To make matters worse, the plant can’t operate during load shedding as it has not been declared as an essential service. The DA has started engagements with the City of Tshwane, which supplies electricity to the area, to exclude the purification plants and reservoirs from the load shedding schedule.

Madibeng Local Municipality is failing to manage the Schoemansville purification plant. The DA will write a recommendation to the Municipal Manager, Noko Seanego, and Administrator, Paul Maseko, requesting that a qualified contractor take over the daily management of the water plant to ensure that the community receives uninterrupted water supply.

Following several complaints from residents regarding the quality of the water, the DA took it upon itself to conduct a test at an independent laboratory facility and they determined that the water was safe for human consumption. The DA will continue to monitor this.

The people of Hartbeespoort have a Constitutional right to have access to sufficient water, it is the municipality’s duty to ensure that measures are taken to provide this.

Issued by Maritza Du Plessis, DA Councillor: Madibeng Local Municipality, 26 January 2021