Cape Town - The aftermath of power outages is having a ripple effect on the water system.
The City of Cape Town advised residents to boil their water due to a control failure at the Faure Water Treatment Plant caused by load shedding.
According to the City, the cumulative effects of recent phases of load shedding have led to limited operational hours of the sludge-handling process, as this part of the treatment process cannot be augmented by generator capacity due to high energy demand.
“The continued sporadic bouts of load shedding have a detrimental effect on the City’s operations. This is why we are pushing with such urgency to reduce our reliance on Eskom, lower the cost of electricity and end load shedding in Cape Town. The City is also continuing to build on its programme of ending load shedding over time by focusing on energy diversification to enhance security of supply with the City’s own build projects, small-scale embedded generation programmes of buying excess power from qualifying customers, and wheeling and independent power producer programmes.
“Supply from the Faure Water Treatment Plant has been stopped, and the affected areas of the network are being fed water from Blackheath Reservoir. Intensive water sampling and ongoing testing is being conducted,” said the City.
Litha Park is one of the affected areas. Senior resident Grace Ntombeka expressed concern about how the effect of load shedding on the water system may leave her vulnerable to further health complications.
“I have a lot of health issues that I am currently facing, and this water issue does not help. At this point, our lives are at risk, and having to see that it is load shedding that is causing this has me really questioning if the authorities have our best interest at heart. I fear that this issue will cause more and more problems, and I highly recommend that authorities see to it that this gets under control because South Africa’s health system is not yet ready for other issues caused by contaminated water systems,” said Ntombeka.
Ward councillor Kevin Southgate said the state in which Eskom has left the country was worrisome as the problem had gone beyond people’s homes and started to compromise their health.
“The issue with the water system is not new, but the mere fact that this is caused by load shedding is worrisome. It is a sad state of affairs, but it once again highlights the plight of communities. It started in people’s homes, and now it has the potential to affect people’s health as our water systems are compromised due to power outages.
“This just goes to say that there is a real argument to be made and I fully support the City in saying that we need to look at all avenues in regards to the City’s perspective of moving away from Eskom supply, looking at our own sort of power supplies in the metro and maybe even wider than the metro too,” said Southgate.