Makhanda faces new water crisis after Howieson’s Poort pump damaged

For the second time this year, pumps at the Howieson’s Poort dam in Makhanda failed, leaving residents to once again face water problems more serious than usual in the crumbling town.

Amanda Skritch, a spokesperson for the Amatola Water Board, which is working with the municipality to address the water crisis in Makhanda, said they hope to get a standby pump working by Tuesday.

The James Kleynhans Water Treatment Works was also “off-line”, according to a statement by the municipality, and large parts of the town ran dry. This was exacerbated by a delay in repairs to a major pipeline. 

The town already has water restrictions on alternate days and evening restrictions remain in place.

The Makana Local Municipality said on Friday that the water would be back by Saturday. This then changed to Sunday. Later, Skritch said it was likely to be on Tuesday.

“The Howieson’s Poort pump station recently experienced flooding, resulting in the submersion and damage of the pumps and motors, and needed to be sent for repairs. The full extent of the damage is not yet known and a comprehensive assessment needs to be conducted by the service provider.

“Fortunately, Amatola Water had already initiated the refurbishment of one of the motors, which is currently being installed to restore the plant’s functionality.

“It is anticipated that the motor will be fully installed and operating by Tuesday, 12 December 2023,” she said. 

“In the meantime, Amatola Water, Makana Local Municipality and the Department of Water and Sanitation have arranged for water trucks to assist with the provision of water to the affected areas.”

This is the second time that this happened in the past six months.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Corruption in Makana lies behind the water and sanitation crisis that’s killing our town

By May this year, with the first prolonged water outage due to a system failure at the Howieson’s Poort Dam, the town had already suffered hundreds of water outages.

On 2 May, there was a new problem involving suction pressure at Howieson’s Poort Dam. Water was restored to the town on 5 May, but the supply was diminished as the issue was still not resolved. 

On 8 May, high-lying reservoirs ran dry as divers were sent to investigate. 

On 13 May, the pump at Howieson’s Poort was tested and found to be leaking.

On 10 June, divers removed debris from Howieson’s Poort and scoured valves and pipelines. More complications followed. 

Water was finally restored on 14 June.

Read more in Daily Maverick: R400m later, Makhanda is still facing a catastrophic water crisis

Despite assistance from the provincial Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, the municipality remains in a shambles. 

It has received a fourth consecutive disclaimer of audit opinion from the Auditor-General. The annual audit also found that the municipality met only 33% of its service delivery and infrastructure development targets, exacerbating continued water shortages.

It also spent only 1.5% of its budget on maintaining and repairing its ageing infrastructure, against the mandated 8% set out by National Treasury.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Makhanda residents will feel the pain if dysfunctional municipality has to repay unspent R60.7m grant — MEC

The Makana Local Municipality stands to lose R60.7-million in infrastructure grants that went unspent in the past two financial years. National Treasury has threatened that this amount will be deducted from the municipality’s equitable share to be paid over the next year. 

This will likely affect the municipality’s ability to pay salaries.

On Monday, provincial treasury spokesperson Pumelele Godongwana confirmed that they had asked National Treasury to reverse this decision, but have not had a response.

The Democratic Alliance’s spokesperson on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Vicky Knoetze, said they had now asked the national minister to dissolve the municipal council.

“Last week, the DA raised our concerns for the citizens of Makana during a sitting of the provincial legislature, but the acting MEC of Cogta for the sitting, Mlungisi Mvoko, dodged the issue, choosing rather to recite processes that must be followed before the provincial executive can intervene in local government.

“If there was political will to fix this province instead of finding excuses or dodging responsibility, this ANC-led government would be finding solutions.

“It has become clear that the council has no appetite to ensure that it preserves the last of its failing infrastructure,” Knoetze said, adding that they believe “exceptional circumstances” exist to justify a Section 139 constitutional intervention to dissolve the municipality.

This section of the Constitution states: “If a provincial executive cannot or does not adequately exercise the powers or perform the functions referred to in subsection 4 or 5, the national executive must intervene in terms of subsection 4 or 5 instead of the relevant provincial executive.”

“I have now written to the national minister, Thembi Nkadimeng, to request that her department step in where the provincial executive has failed,” Knoetze added. DM