Rhodes university students, Makhanda residents, schools, old age homes and even estate agents are barely keeping their heads above water as the Makana local municipality faces the real threat of Day Zero.
The municipality, which governs the town of Makhanda and surrounding areas including Alicedale and Riebeek East, anticipates that their main supplier dam would be completely dry by mid-February.
Its main supplier dam levels are critically low:
Settlers Dam is at 12.1%;
Howieson’s Poort at 22.7%;
Milner is at 15%, and
Jameson is at 0%.
The municipality, in the statement posted on its website, says it will be difficult to recover from the crisis unless the area receives significant rainfall.
“We are restricting consumption to 50 litres per person a day with immediate effect, to be able to use the Settlers supply for longer and push back the date at which it ceases to be viable,” said the municipality.
“At the current levels and usage we anticipate that around the middle of February the supply from Settlers will cease.
“When that happens, the 10 megalitres of water that is supplied to the city from the James Kleynhans Purification Works will need to be shared by everyone, and a water rationing plan is being developed.”
The municipality says a shutdown schedule is being developed to help residents and businesses plan around scheduled outages that take place after the middle of February.
Rhodes University’s Dr Iain L’Ange, who is a director for infrastructure, operations & finance, said the university has had a water outage plan and protocols in place since 2013. “In 2013 Grahamstown experienced a water crisis and we have been able to base our water outage plans on the experience we gained during that time,” he said.
Students and parents were being kept up to date with the water situation via e-mails, website and social media platforms, he added.
“We are also embarking on a water-saving campaign at the university to create awareness to students about how they can do their part to save water.”
The university is currently installing smart water meters in all of the residences. The meters are programmable, and once the water volume allocation has been provided, the valve will shut off. “Residents will need to self-regulate to ensure that no more than 10 litres is used per shower and that there is no excessive or wasteful laundry usage,” he said.
The university said upon completion of the installation in the residences, the sports ablution areas will be addressed similarly.
“All residence students will be provided with basins to use for the collection of shower water. This grey water will be used for the flushing of toilets in the residences.
“The supply of municipal water to the residence toilets will be shut off,” he said.
Drinking water will be available in the dining halls while residence students will be provided with water bottles to replenish from the tanks to avoid a proliferation of plastic water bottles.
P-mats will be installed in all urinals on campus and automatic water flushing will be reduced. “Unnecessary crockery and cutlery like side plates and saucers will be withheld in the dining halls, and plates will be wiped with paper before washing to reduce water usage,” he further said.
The university also said the cleaning services will make greater use of chemical sprays to reduce water usage for the cleaning of ablution areas.
“Borehole water will be made available to the rest of campus for the flushing of toilets, depending on the location of ablution areas.”
Khaki coloured water tanks labelled ‘Drinking Water’ will be used for drinking while grey coloured water tanks will be labelled ‘Grey Water for Flushing Toilets’.
Washing of windows and vehicles at the university has been halted.
L’Ange said they had been working with and alongside their local municipality for months to mobilise resources and to plan for the time when the water availability in Settlers and Howieson’s Poort Dams is exhausted.
“This includes representations at ministerial level and the establishment of partnerships with the presidential infrastructure coordinating commission (PICC) and the relevant provincial government departments. At the same time we have offered our expertise and resources for the municipality’s plans to purify the groundwater so that borehole water can be made safe to drink.”
An estate agent, who wanted to remain anonymous, confirmed the crisis was affecting their businesses but also said there “were no worries”.
“We are in trouble but we’ve experienced the same a few years back and people buy houses for the love of the place, not because there’s water. There are always alternatives. No town has shut down because there’s no water.”
The municipality has made plans for a distribution schedule for water tankers to distribute water to different council wards.
Water will be delivered to hospitals, old age homes, clinics and schools...