Residents in Hammanskraal and surrounding areas have been forced to endure a serious water shortage for weeks due to the shutdown of Temba water treatment works following concerns over water pollution in Leeuwkraal dam.
Chairperson of Utilities Services in the City of Tshwane, Flora Monama, has called for calm and patience among residents who continue to air their frustration over the lack of water.
In a video circulated on social media, Monama urged residents to be patient with the metro as it is working on addressing their water woes.
She predicted that the problem must be solved during the coming weekend, adding that the City won’t provide dirty water to residents and put their lives at risk.
Tshwane senior official Sipho Madhlabane, said a highly contaminated Leeukraal dam which affected operations at Temba water treatment plant.
Speaking alongside Monama during a visit at the dam, he said: “We have to flush the dam before we can start the plant. Even if we are standing here you can smell the sewer from the river. So, we cannot pump the water into the plant because it will further contaminate the plant and the plant is not designed to treat the raw sewer.”
Municipal spokesperson Selby Bokaba said the Temba plant supplying water to Hammanskraal and surrounding areas will remain shut pending the improvement of the water quality from the dam.
The Temba plant was closed on October 7 after municipal technicians discovered that there was sewer contamination in the dam.
Bokaba said:"These challenges were caused by a fire that gutted the Pyramid substation on October 2 2024, leaving the Rooiwal Wastewater Treatment Works without electricity. The plant had to temporarily cease operations and, consequently, discharged untreated sewage into the Apies River, which feeds the Leeuwkraal Dam."
He said a team of scientists is monitoring the performance of the Rooiwal plant to ensure its compliance with the required effluent standards.
“These standards, mandated by strict regulatory requirements, include limits on Chemical Oxygen Demand, Total Suspended Solids, Nitrate (NO3), Phosphate (PO4), Ammonia, Eco-line and residual chlorine which must be consistently met by the plant,”he said.
Roaming water tankers, the city said, will be provided to residents until the situation has normalised.
There have been allegations that some water tankers were being channelled to connected people and that some people are being forced to pay to receive water.
Bokaba said: “The city wishes to make it categorically clear that the city’s contracted service providers are delivering water for free and residents don’t have to pay for it."
The city initially committed that pumping of water will resume within seven days.
However, Bokaba said, water resumption was dependent on the outcome of the laboratory test results expected to be released by the end of this week.
Pretoria News