Cape Town – The provincial government in conjunction with the South African Red Cross Society has already delivered 2 000 litres of bottled water to the Beaufort West area, amid growing concern over the town’s ongoing water crisis.
According to reports, Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell warned that the situation in Beaufort West is very serious and is expected to worsen as the town’s water reclamation plant was shut down for critical maintenance work.
The reclamation plant had worked for two months without maintenance and is at risk of failure if not serviced.
The plant provides an estimated 20% of the town’s drinking water.
Boreholes provide the rest via town reservoirs, but these reserves are quickly dwindling.
The plant was expected to be returned to service on Monday and reservoirs are expected to be back to full capacity by Thursday.
The municipality is also implementing water shedding to allow for the reservoirs to recover.
In a notice online, the municipality said reservoirs 1, 2 and 3, were standing at 13%, 28.7% and 11.3% capacity respectively.
The municipality is distributing water to the worst-affected areas and has appealed to the public to check water shedding schedules to know when their area will be affected.