Ms Rejoice Mabudafhasi, MP, the Deputy Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, will handover an intervention water quality and quantity project to Ikwezi Local Municipality on Thursday, 20 March 2014, in Jansenville, Eastern Cape.
The Deputy Minister’s visit to Ikwezi Municipality forms part of the National Water Week scheduled to take place from 17 to 23 March under the theme “Celebrating 20 years of Water Delivery for Social and Economic Development”.
This intervention project manifests a result of the collaboration between the Department of Water Affairs, Cacadu District and Ikwezi local municipalities. The Ikwezi Local Municipality is situated in a water scarce area and has a challenge of poor quality ground water. The water becomes depleted in the drought periods in Karoo cluster and this also affects Ikwezi Local Municipality.
The samples taken by the Department of Water Affairs on Jansenville’s boreholes indicated that the quality of borehole water supplying Jansenville was so poor that it may lead to real and significant risk to public health. The high sulphur content in the water caused rotten egg smell.
The interventions made at this municipality include amongst others; a special grant of R3.2 million from the Department of Water Affairs through the Accelerated Community Infrastructure programme (ACIP); R2.7 million for the erection of Rain Water Harvesting Tanks (RWH) including accessories like tanks, stands and gutters.
Through this allocation a total of 435 tanks were erected; the sum of R1 million was granted to deal with pressing water loss management challenges through the installation of zone meters; R600 000 for household leak repairs; R300 000 to train process controllers. To reinforce the intervention Cacadu District Municipality allocated R1 million for exploratory drilling which resulted in high yield borehole with much better quality.
Through this intervention the Green Drop status improved from 2.9% to about 60%.
Media are invited to attend the handover ceremony as follows:
Date: 20 March 2014
Venue: Jansenville Communal Water House
Time: 09h00
For RSVP’s and media enquiries:
Peter Mbelengwa, Spokesperson for the Deputy Minister
Cell: 082 611 8197
E-mail: mbelengwap@dwa.gov.za
Mandilakhe Zenzile, Department of Water Affairs Eastern Cape Regional Office
Tel: 043 604 5400
Cell: 082 883 5293
E-mail: zenzilem@dwa.gov.za
