Question NW3427 to the Minister of Water and Sanitation
14 November 2022 - NW3427
Tito, Ms LF to ask the Minister of Water and Sanitation
Whether he has been informed that residents of Wards 10 and 5 in Mkhondo in Mpumalanga have been drinking muddy water for the past couple of weeks; if not, why not; if so, what immediate plans of intervention have been taken to provide communities with clean water?
Reply:
The Department of Water and Sanitation engaged with Mkhondo Local Municipality on 10 and 19 October 2022 respectively. The Municipality reported that there has never been a point where there has been muddy water supplied to the community except when the team is busy with pipe repairs and only for a few hours not days or weeks. The Municipality has never received any complaints regarding muddy water in both Wards mentioned above.
Eskom’s load shedding affects the water supply and the low-level water in the reservoirs causes sediments to flow from the reservoirs into the pipeline, and this affects the quality supplied to the community. When the water treatment plants are not operating, water storage reservoirs drop significantly to an extent that remaining water at the water storage reservoirs remain with sediments that are flushed out when water supply is restored.
On occasions when the municipality experiences muddy water, their water quality team collects water samples for analysis to confirm compliance with the drinking water quality standard.
The DWS has been engaging with the municipality on the 2022 Blue Drop Risk Assessment Report published in April 2022. The DWS has requested the municipality to improve on the following:
- The WTW Microbiological report
- Develop water storage reservoirs cleaning programme to all water supply systems within the municipality to prevent sediments in tap water.
- Flush water following major pipe burst to prevent supply of muddy water.
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