East London - The Eastern Cape town of Butterworth and the surrounding areas in the Mnquma Local Municipality will run out of water this coming week and residents will have to rely on an intermittent water supply brought in by tankers until the situation improves, the Amathole District Municipality (ADM) said on Saturday.
"The Mnquma LM‘s Butterworth and surrounding areas will run out of water completely during the week ending 18 September 2020," ADM spokesperson Noni Madikizela-Vuso said in a statement.
"When this eventuality happens, tankers will be used to cart water to affected communities. It is noteworthy to indicate that water carting has its own challenges which result in intermittent water supply," Madikizela-Vuso said.
Among the problems were limited trips to fill up water tankers due to the distance between the water source at Kei Bridge and the communities needing water, constant truck repairs due to the bad roads in the area, and an insufficient number of tankers due to limited funds.
The much awaited completion of the Teko Kona project by the end of September would also bring some relief, "albeit marginally".
The project involves the drilling of boreholes in the Teko Kona area and equipping them to pipe water to Butterworth.
The ADM was investigating the purchase of additional water trucks, "using the regional bulk infrastructure grant". In addition, the department of human settlements, water and sanitation, through Amatola Water, would assist with the trucking of water.
The ADM continued to plead with communities to use water sparingly, Madikizela-Vuso said.
African News Agency (ANA)