Possible negligence in the Amathole District Municipality has left some Eastern Cape towns with hardly any water, with affected areas already grappling with a devastating drought.
Towns affected include Fort Beaufort, Adelaide and Bedford in the Raymond Mhlaba Municipality. The Andrew Turpin Dam is meant to provide the town of Bedford with water.
However, the level has plummeted to 1% from 40% last week.
Someone allegedly left the valve open. The consequences are devastating.
“We actually got a fright coming here on Monday and seeing the dam absolutely empty and on inspection we saw that the valves were open and the water was flowing out. So, that really alarmed us because it’s worrying that in a water-restricted place it is just being wasted,” says resident Jenny Rush.
The municipality is investigating these allegations.
“The dam was about 40% and the next thing we receive information that the dam has run dry. I’ve sent the technical team including director of engineering to physically verify. He briefed me that it is true and there are allegations that someone has left the valve open. We don’t know who. We are, as the municipality, investigating the matter,” says Amathole Municipal Manager Dr Tandekile Mnyimba.
Farmers are the hardest hit by the drought.
“It’s been very difficult. So, we’ve had to just make sure that we put in enough piped water in all camps. All the normal earth dams are empty and we’ve had to substitute that with borehole water and piped water in different parts of the farm,” says farmer Peter Freese.
The Water and Sanitation Department has since assisted the district municipality with R30 million. This was used to procure ten water trucks with a 12 000 litre capacity.
A further R100 million grant has been requested to improve the water infrastructure.
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