The Democratic Alliance (DA) is concerned that the failure to properly dose the water at Sol Plaatje municipality’s Riverton Purification Plant with chemicals, is increasing the risk of the presence of E.coli in Kimberley’s tap water.
The threat of water contamination was revealed during another oversight inspection to the plant earlier this week by myself, together with a water scientist.
The inspection showed that while the water did seem a little clearer, very little work had actually been done to remedy Kimberley’s water problems.
The turbo clarifier seemed to be working well but the means of dosing the water with chemicals has raised alarm bells. There was just a single stream of undiluted chemical added into the feed well, given that the pipe where the chemicals are meant to be sprayed out evenly over the water was disconnected. This is serious cause for concern about actual water quality, including the presence of microbes in the water.
All four rake clarifiers were also not delivering clear water and were clearly not operating according to design. While the rakes are there to move the bed of solids around gently, so that clear water can report to the overflow, the rakes were all found to be standing still.
The filters were also seen not to be effective. This explains why residents are still reporting dirty water in their taps.
It is unacceptable that, three weeks down the line, Sol Plaatje is still failing to address frontline water problems. This inaction is posing a direct risk to the health of citizens and also posing an additional threat of water again coming to a standstill due to the water purification process taking longer and longer, and less and less clear water reaching Kimberley.
The DA will continue to monitor the Sol Plaatje water situation on a week-by-week basis. We will also be requesting a report on Kimberley’s water quality from the Department of Water and Sanitation.