The Municipality as a water services provider is responsible for the provision of water services to the communities.
The objectives are realized by abstracting raw water from the water resource, purify and distribute portable water to all water to consumers and users.
The Municipal bulk water supply is obtained from both internal and external water supply schemes.
The main water supply is anchored by the Witbank Water Purification plant and augmented by external schemes from mine reclamation and modular package plants.
The total municipal demand is approximately 183 Mega litres per day and the current available supply is 125 Mega litres per day for all schemes combined, currently there is a deficit of 58 Mega litres per day.
This makes the portable water distribution fragile thus any disturbance in the water supply system, such as power failures, pipe breakages, theft and vandalism of municipal infrastructure causes a major imbalance in the water supply provision.
The old and dilapidated infrastructure is the cause of most water quality failures and outages other than the deficit.
The Municipality has implemented various interventions to replace the old asbestos cement pipes, however due to funding challenges the implementation process is not moving as required to have the desired impact.
The ageing infrastructure contributes to the high-water losses and deteriorating water quality. Climate change which has resulted in increased temperatures which has impacted the quality of the raw water supply.
During rainy season high manganese concentration from the raw water source affect the quality of water produced by the Water treatment plants which causes discoloration and odour that is experienced.
Ongoing processes in addressing the quality issues included the refurbishment of filters at the water purification plant as well as the improvement of dosing system as well as the construction of a pre-oxidation plant for effective treatment of high manganese concentration, which its anticipated to be completed in January 2025.
The Department of Water and Sanitation intervened within the municipality by conducting an assessment on the entire bulk water supply system wherein the assessment had flagged short, medium- and long-term projects to alleviate the current water supply challenges.
The conditional assessment has been completed and approved awaiting implementation. The interventions outlined on the conditional assessment will assist in mitigating the challenges of the deficit, old infrastructure and the water quality.
The implementation of the conditional assessment will be the tangible solution to turn around the water supply and quality challenges faced by the municipality as it makes provision in the short term for the stabilisation of the current supply system at R 250 million and the long-term upgrades for sustainability and growth will require approximately at R 4 billion.
For more information, please contact the call centre:013 690 6222/ 333/ 444
HS Mayisela
Municipal Manager
Emalahleni Local Municipality
Emalahleni Local Municipality
