1 000s of litres of drinking water wasted

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GEORGE NEWS - Thousands of litres of drinking water were lost when two 8ML reservoirs north of Denneoord overflowed for hours on end during Saturday evening, 28 February.

The Kutchers, who live just off 9th Avenue, heard the noise during the night, initially under the impression that it was raining. Teresa Kutcher said she awoke twice during the night, and one time commented to her husband, Freddie, that it was raining nicely.

When Freddie woke up again at 05:00 and looked through the window, he realised the noise was caused by water streaming from the reservoir next to their house. They called the municipality’s emergency number and drove to 9th Avenue where they witnessed water streaming down the street.

“Two municipal workers were walking down from the reservoir. They tried to phone the waterworks to report it. It sounded like one of them said: ‘Are you going to wake them now?’”

To the Kutchers, this created the impression that the staff on duty at the waterworks had been negligent and asleep rather than keeping watch.

Teresa said they were exasperated, as they had been trying conscientiously to conserve water because of the high-level restrictions, but thousands of litres of purified water were being lost. “We residents are punishable if we do not stick to the restrictions. We want to know what consequences there will be for the staff responsible for this.”

Teresa said this was the second time that they were aware of the reservoir overflowing.

Deon de Jager, deputy director of water services at the Civil Engineering Services Department, said the reservoir levels are monitored using an electronic Scada (supervisory control and data acquisition) and telemetry system at both the old and new water treatment plants.

“On the day, the system reflected levels significantly lower than the actual reservoir levels, resulting in continued inflow under the assumption that sufficient storage capacity remained.”

Upon receiving complaints, the treatment plants were immediately shut down to prevent further inflow.

“The fault was traced to the Scada system and was rectified on the same day. The municipality has two staff members on duty per shift at the treatment plants. However, reservoirs are not physically monitored at all times, as the system relies on telemetry for real-time oversight. While generally reliable, technical failures can occur.”

De Jager said the matter was being assessed internally, and where negligence is identified, appropriate disciplinary processes will be followed. “The municipality remains committed to minimising water losses and maintaining infrastructure reliability.”

He said this is the first incident of this nature reported to the municipality.