Makana Local Municipality, which forms part of the Sarah Baartman District Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province governs the town of (Makhanda) as well as the towns and villages of Alicedale, Seven Fountains, Riebeeck East and Fort Brown. The Municipality has been slacking in the provision of basic service for several years, and this has been aggravated by persistent drought conditions that has been prevalent for over five years to date. The drought is by far the worst droughts in history, resulting in very low dam levels which led to the town experiencing various water crisis.
There have been several challenges pertaining to service delivery in Makhanda especially the provision of clean water to the residents, however the municipality has several projects in place that seek to address these challenges. It must be noted that for the provision of "clean water" by Makhanda; a number of matters have to be addressed through interventions. There was the identification of the problems’ source first, then interventions were / are being implemented to address the problems, and that is addressing the matter of ensuring the provision of clean water.
This response highlights the interventions that the Municipality undertook, and or is undertaking to provide clean water; the interventions therefore translate to the projects that are aimed at addressing:
The interventions listed below highlight the projects that were implemented over the years to ensure consistent water supply to Makhanda residents, as well as ensuring that the current and future resources and infrastructure support the goal of supplying clean water to the Makhanda communities.
1. WORK DONE TO GUARANTEE ACCESS TO CLEAN WATER.
The Municipality is in the process of responding to the water infrastructure challenges and therefore the development of a comprehensive Infrastructure Asset Management Plan has already commenced. Projects that will ensure increased water supply capacity to meet the demand have also commenced, as well as the development of a comprehensive Water Conservation and Water Demand Management Strategy.
1.1 Water Conservation Demand Management Projects:
The projects in the table below are currently at different stages of implementation:
Name of the project |
Amount |
% complete |
Refurbishment of Riebeek East WTW |
6 955 044 |
100% |
Refurbishment of Jameson and Milner Dam |
10 000 000 |
100% |
Refurbishment of Alicedale WTW |
10 147 495 |
100% |
Purchase James Kleynhans Pump Set |
1 220 000 |
100% |
Fencing of Bothas Hill Reservoirs |
1 301 739 |
100% |
Feasibility Study of investigation of water supply to Makhanda West from James Kleinhans WTW |
1 421 079 |
100% |
Replacement of Asbestos pipes in water reticulation network in Grahamstown |
4 007 617 |
Contractor appointed |
Waainek Bulk Water Supply Refurbishment (Multi-year Project) |
8 932 226 |
33% |
Groundwater Development (Boreholes) |
|
100% |
2.. Water Crisis Disaster Management Projects:
3. SUPPORT BY MISA AND NATIONAL COGTA
MISA is providing technical support in terms of civil work on infrastructure and the electrical engineer is normally on site at the James Kleynhans Water Treatment Works. MISA also provides funding for the rehabilitation and maintenance of Grahamstown CBD road, Somerset, Hill and New Road.
The support is also given to municipality on MIG Projects planning, implementation and monitoring processes as well as ensuring the development of response plan to service delivery challenges.
National Cogta has allocated MIG funding to deal with all the persistence service delivery challenges including Water and Sanitation.