The Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation has urged the public to restrict their water use as much as possible during and shortly after load shedding.
This as infrastructure buckles under the pressure of continued long periods of Eskom blackouts.
Western Cape’s Department of Water and Sanitation briefed the media in Cape Town.
Western Cape dam levels sit at just over 55%.
While more than 20% lower than the same time last year, authorities say it’s not a critical issue.
However, the department says people must understand that water is a very scarce resource in South Africa.
Of great concern is the impact of load shedding on the water systems, especially pumps that ensure proper sanitation and clean drinking water.
Load shedding has hit Cape Town hard:
It asks that the public be very stringent with water use during load shedding.
DWS Provincial Department Head, Ntombizanele Bila-Mupariwa says, “By the time electricity comes back, it takes time for the pumps to get going again and this affects the flow of water. Sometimes the water flows very slowly. When load shedding occurs we call on residents to use water sparingly because by the time the pump has kicked in it creates a huge pressure in the system.”
The department says it is satisfied that municipalities in the province are working to ensure back up plans and systems are in place during outages.
But it described vandalism as becoming a cancer in societies as infrastructure is targeted throughout the system.
Nomvuyiseko Tumana is Acting Director for Water and Sanitation Services Support, “When they want services, number one, when they want to present a strong message. The number one thing they think of is to vandalise infrastructure, number two what we have discovered is that there’s a criminal element involved in infrastructure vandalism and we brought the law enforcement and the scrapyard owners so that whatever cases are being brought forward the scrapyard owners are able to say that these are the goods that are being stolen in our communities and the perpetrators are sometimes known in the communities.”
Three bllion rand has been budgeted by the department for the next three fiscal years to fund infrastructure across the province. Work is also expected to finally commence in April on the dam wall at Clanwilliam.
