Western Cape municipalities have been forced to readjust their budgets and buy generators in order to ensure a constant water supply due to the impact of loadshedding on infrastructure.
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IOL reports that water trucks had to be brought into Villiersdorp to satisfy the needs of the community after a shortage was caused as a result of stage 6 loadshedding.
According to Theewaterskloof mayor, Kallie Papier, despite the shortage of generators being currently experienced, the municipality had managed to buy one in Johannesburg and it would be used to boost water supply operations.
Speaking to the Weekend Argus, Papier said generators had also been implemented in Grabouw while Caledon’s recent water crisis had also been resolved through the provision of generators.
“It’s costing us a lot. Even though I don’t have a final figure for all the generators we have bought for our water infrastructure as a result of the higher stages of load shedding, in Grabouw alone we spent R10 million which was not budgeted for. But we had to solve a crisis,“ he said.
Water level at the main Theewaterskloof Dam is currently at above 60%, despite very high temperatures.
However, Papier said that the difficulty was in pumping water from reservoirs due to load shedding.
Meanwhile, the City of Cape Town also increased its budget to protect its critical infrastructure from the impact of sustained load shedding but acting Mayco member for Water and Sanitation Siseko Mbandezi emphasised that the introduction of emergency generators to keep the pumps to the water supply reservoirs going, was required.
“Load shedding poses a threat to Cape Town’s water supply as it impacts both our infrastructure and those of our suppliers and service providers.
“The City is working with all stakeholders to manage these risks and has called on residents to reduce their water demand to assist,” said Mbandezi.
“The City had set a maximum limit for collective water use to be no more than 850 million litres a day and urged residents to use water wisely,” he said.
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City’s seven-fold budget increase to protect sewer pumps from loadshedding
Picture: Cape{town}Etc Library