There seems to be a lot of confusion about the water supply in Kenton.
If you look at the schematic below, you’ll see that Kenton has two sources of municipal water:
1. The Reverse Osmosis (RO) plant situated at the end of Bushmans, and
2. The Diaz Aquifer Bed. (Near the Diaz Cross).
The RO plant is, according to a very senior water engineer, one of the best run plants in the country. This plant takes brackish water and converts it into pure water.
The second source of municipal water is from boreholes pumped from the Diaz Aquifer. I understand that when this was first discovered it was very good water but has now become contaminated by sea water which broke over the dunes during a typhoon a few years ago. It is slowly improving but is still too salty for human consumption.
Both municipal water sources are pumped into the large reservoirs on the hill in Ekuphumleni making a blend of water, which is within potable water specifications. This makes Kenton’s water supply unique!
THE THIRD SOURCE OF WATER
The third source of water, is of course, rain water. Every house in Kenton has, or should have, water tanks to store this precious commodity. With these three sources of water we are so much better off than most of the country. We are not like Cape Town or Johannesburg for example where falling levels in reservoirs are watched with trepidation by everyone. We also need to be cognisant of the fact that we live in a drought stricken country and every drop of water counts.
FACTS AND FIGURES
• RO plant produces 1 800m³ (1.8ML)/day
• Dias 700m³ (.7ML)/day
• A total of 2 500m³ (2.5ML)/day
And that is it!
We all need to share this water:
• Kenton
• Ekuphumleni
• Merry Hill
• Bushmans
• Riversbend
• Marcelle
At the end of May the supply seemed to be sufficient, as the three big concrete reservoirs were full every morning. However, since the day without Eskom power a few weeks ago, a day where neither the RO pumps nor Diaz pumps could work, no water was pumped into the reservoirs. The reservoirs have never filled up again, averaging just around 50%.
SO THE BOTTOM LINE IS – WE HAVE TO CUT DEMAND TO SUIT THE SUPPLY.
We did it for a few months and now we need to do it again. Let’s all cooperate and try to get the reservoirs full for the festive season so we don’t fall into the same morass as we did last year.
We know that our gardens are crying out for rain but we simply cannot afford to use municipal water for gardening.
• No watering gardens with hose pipes
• No washing cars and boats
• No washing down drive ways
• 2 minute showers – keep the water to water plants
• No running taps
What do you do to help? It’s up to us all!
Redmond Taggart
KOSRA Committee
Has the broken water pipe in the council reticulation system been properly fixed? This has caused a water loss of around 60% according to a Kenton rate payer, Arthur Taute, who is a civil engineer and investigated why so much water was running underground into the Bushmans River. He traced it back to a broken Council water reticulation pipe. He has has various meetings with Council Infrastructure staff starting nearly 6 years ago… Apparently nothing has been done in this regard. I hope I am wrong!! If not fixed it is hugely negligent. It’s not consumption by ratepayers that can be blamed! In a situation of drought we are all trying to use water sparingly.
Your comment has been forwarded to Redmond for response
Could you please change my e mail address to : smarktav@gmail.com
Will do!
Thanks for a very useful summary. Maybe it should be sent out with a monthly municipal account?C
Thanks for the clarification and appreciate the enormous amount of work that has gone in so far, hopefully the tide has turned albeit slowly and from a low base!
I am curious as to what impact, if any, the water table level has on the quantity of water from the Diaz aquifer, ie is the constraint inflow or throughput in the system?
Redmond will get back to you!
Excellent…thank you Redmond. Will be printing and showing to guests. Could estate agents and those renting out their properties do the same ?
Good work, well done
Although moved on, I read this with great interest. You talk about the typhoon a few years ago, but I have lived with water extracted from an aquifer before and if this is constantly drawn and there is no/little respite, then the level in the aquifer drops. There is then the possibility that slightly less fresh water (brackish or even salty) will get in, or you might even need to go deeper for fresh water. This starts getting expensive in every sense. The last thing to consider is what the bedrock looks like as this will have a bearing on how water gets to, sits in, or dries out of your aquifer. Which ever it is, water remains a really precious resource, though I note that both the aquifer and RO require pumping, which requires power, which rather relies on ESKOM to keep working…. With fond memories of a wonderful place.
I reported, to the Municipal office, a water leak outside no. 16 Newington road on Tuesday 26th, am. Each day since then I have returned to the municipal office to report the same, with no response other than the clerk says it is noted. It is now Friday and the “municipal” water is still running. The Municipality have not responded and I have no other options. Unless simple leaks are not fixed promptly, we will continue to run out of water.
Reported