The sooner the nightly water shutdowns that cause airlocks, burst pipes, and unhygienic conditions in Kimberley end, the better.
Urgent emergency repairs, improved and regular maintenance, increased effort, planned major upgrade projects, and a collective willingness to solve the city’s water woes will ensure future water security.
These were the words of Jahn Hohne, chief executive officer (CEO) of Ekapa Mining, at the two-day water workshop hosted by the Sol Plaatje Municipality (SPM) last week. Officials and private sector consultants explained to stakeholders the problems and solutions to the Kimberley water crisis.
It was made clear how the recently confirmed Budget Facility Infrastructure (BFI) grant of R2,5 billion as a Water Services Infrastructure Grant (WSIG) will be utilised to overhaul the bulk water supply infrastructure over the next five years.
It was agreed by all parties that the city is experiencing a water crisis and that the current water losses of 60% is unacceptable. The causes of the losses must be investigated and rectified.
“The Diamond City has been plagued by unannounced water shutdowns for emergency repairs on burst pipes as well as nightly and afternoon shutdowns to save water in the Newton reservoirs for way too long now,” Hohne remarked.
First public private partnership
In what can be described as the first public private partnership of its kind, municipal manager Thapelo Matlala called Hohne and his Ekapa mining engineering team to the Riverton water treatment plant and the Newton reservoirs to evaluate the problems and suggest solutions in December 2023.
Hohne says his company has a world class water treatment processing plant in which water is recirculated for use more than six times in its diamond recovery plant.
He spoke out of “goodwill and love for the city where everyone can prosper.” Hohne also mentioned that Matlala, who only arrived two years ago, “is the best municipal manager that Kimberley has had in the last 30 years” and expressed his gratitude for the positive working relationship between SPM and Ekapa.
“When Matlala invited us to Riverton, I was overjoyed to offer our assistance and took five of our engineers along. We were shocked to see the state of demise where vegetation was out of control, windows smashed, rubbish strewn, and birds had nests inside the buildings.”
‘Horrors’ discovered at plant
“Workers were running around with bobbejaanspanners trying to work as best they could on equipment that has lost its automated functions. We saw wires hanging from dysfunctional control panels.
“Some of the valves could not open and others could not fully close anymore. Some of the state-of-the-art high lift pumps could not be utilised, as they did not have the required additional transformer.
“The backwashing is not optimal in the sand filter beds, resulting in the caking of the sand, and sludge has built up to unacceptable levels in the clarifiers due to failed sludge release valves.
“The quality of the water is highly questionable, looking at what happens at the plant. The chlorine processes are not done correctly, and the incorrect flocculant dosages was apparent. The sand bed filters are overloaded and failing clarifiers are a major problem.”
The old plant’s construction was completed in 1948 and the second one’s construction started in the 1970’s.
It was expanded in phases and by the 1990’s it was considered to deliver the highest quality purified water in South Africa, Hohne said. Hohne has compiled a report with recommendations.
“In a letter sent to Matlala ten days ago, we offered to refurbish the new plants’ six clarifiers back to their designed working state at a cost of approximately R10 million. I am waiting on the confirmation and acceptance of our offer.”
He says the work is not complicated as it entails the initial cleaning up and then repairing and replacing the scrapers on fully refurbished rotating gantries and replacing and automating the sludge release valves.
Many leaks caused by sabotage
In an aerial drone survey done recently by Ekapa, at least 20 leaks were discovered on the two bulk supply pipelines between Riverton and Kimberley.
“Many of the leaks were caused by sabotage by the cattle, sheep, and goat farmers who deliberately break the pipes for their wild pastures to flourish. The police must be called in to investigate and arrest the culprits.”
Hohne is delighted that three city engineers have recently been appointed. One for water, one for electricity, and one for roads reporting to the executive director of infrastructure, Sabelo Mkhize.
At the Newton reservoir, Hohne noticed not all the pumps are utilised.
“Soon after, the municipal manager arranged an order to get the pumps installed and recommissioned again. These pumps are used to pump the water that is below ground level in the reservoirs. There is more than enough water at Newton, but without the submersible pumps the low water cannot be accessed to feed into Kimberley. Therefore, 50% of the available water has not been used for a long time.”
The regular nightly water interruptions are the cause of the many inner city pipe bursts because of the pulsing air pressure.
“Another problem is that residents without air relief valves are paying for compressed air relieving through their meters,” Hohne said.
According to him, the municipality has made no redundancy provision, therefore, the pumps at the plants are not used optimally. It creates a situation where there is no spare capacity to manage emergency situations without having to interrupt water supply.
Forum offered expertise, knowledge
He is “delighted that some tenders have been awarded as part of the WSIG, with more tenders to follow.”
Enquiring about budgets for the proposed new maintenance department and facilities he was told that R10 million had been approved by council for immediate maintenance, skilled personnel, and facilities, to which he replied that it is a “spittle of a droplet” of the SPM annual budget of R2,6 billion.
Hohne said that SPM is recommended to conduct a substantial review to achieve the correct and equitable delivery of services to the people of Kimberley.
Hohne confirmed as the chairperson of the Kimberley Large Business Forum, “which includes the fantastic new Sol Plaatje University”, that the forum offered to deploy their considerable expertise and knowledge to assist SPM with this review of the optimisation of its annual budget to ensure the municipality becomes financially viable.
