Cape Town – Humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers dispatched a truck to Beaufort West to deliver water after receiving a request from the municipality.
In a letter to the organisation, the municipality’s communication officer, Marlene Hendricks, said: “The Beaufort West Municipality will be running out of emergency bottled water within the next day.
"This is a direct result of the low reservoir levels in town over the past months that caused the municipality to distribute the emergency water that was donated by Gift of the Givers for Day Zero and emergency cases.
The storage room at the Karoo Recreational Hall is empty after a peak festive season.” According to the letter, the town had 40 boreholes and is now operating on 27.
The demand of water in terms of usage is high.
“We appeal to Gift of the Givers to assist the municipality with emergency bottled water for the storerooms.
“The reclamation plant is working in Beaufort West and there is water in the reservoirs in both towns.
Accordingly, there is no emergency at present as far as we are concerned,” he said.
Styan said the drought remained ongoing and long-term by nature and required an ongoing effort by all stakeholders to ensure communities did not run out of drinking water.
“The department will also be sending another delegation to the towns of Beaufort West and Oudtshoorn this week to further determine the needs on the ground,” Styan said.