GEORGE NEWS - The George Municipality is planning to establish a desalination plant somewhere on the municipal coastline.
George Municipal Manager Trevor Botha says they are searching for the most feasible spot for the plant. "It is expensive and we are doing our homework well."
But, he stresses that the expense involved in turning sea water into drinking water should never be a deciding factor.
"We must look to the future. We do not want to find ourselves in a similar position as Cape Town.
"Although research indicates that George will have enough rain water until 2040, we cannot rely on this.
"The same studies show that our neighbouring municipalities will not have enough rain water. We have to prepare for the same case scenario in George and be ready for the worst.
"Water is a matter of life and death. When there is no water, money means nothing."
Botha says he is aware there are many questions surrounding desalination plants, including the mercury levels of the water.
"We will do it right... [It will be constructed] at the right spot, having followed all the right procedures."
The municipality is also in the process of repairing all 16 of its boreholes.
Frustration with filtration
The ultra filtration (UF) water purification plant in Rosedale is undergoing maintenance work after recent allegations in Council that the extremely expensive high tech plant is fast becoming a white elephant.
(See report "Wateraanleg in Rosedale 'n 'wit olifant'" by Michelle Pienaar.)
The UF plant was completed at a cost of over R90-million in 2010 to transform waste water from the sewage plant to an acceptable standard before pumping it into the Garden Route Dam for reuse.
During the 2009/10 drought, the level of the dam dropped to well below 20% and National Government declared George a disaster area and provided the city with an emergency grant to fund the ultra filtration plant.
Botha says the very sensitive filters and some rubbers are being replaced.
He says it is expensive to operate the plant at all times and that it is maintained for when really needed.
"The plant is not a white elephant. It is operated at regular intervals as the membranes have to remain moist and maintained on a daily basis. When in use, it provides 10-million litres a day, a third of the total daily demand in George."
Concerns have been raised that the alleged problems experienced at the plant are not due to neglect or disuse, but because of the poor quality of the water produced by the adjacent waste water works.
The processed effluent that feeds into the filtration plant must adhere to a certain standard that the sensitive membranes can withstand to filter.
The local sewage works in Rosedale has been under increasing pressure to cope with the amount of sewage produced in George and it is doubtful that the current infrastructure is able to produce the standard of waste water as prescribed.
In November 2010, just four months after making its debut, the filtration plant came to a standstill due to quality problems at the waste water works.
The municipality then said that temporary operational problems at the sewage works caused sludge bulking and as a result, the effluent did not comply with the strict standards at the UF plant.
The erection of the plant has always been a highly contentious issue and it took officials months to convince some councillors to give the project their blessing.
ARTICLE: ILSE SCHOONRAAD, GROUP EDITOR'S EDITOR-AT-LARGE
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