USE OF WATER FROM BOREHOLES RESTRICTED
Mossel Bay Municipality
NEWS RELEASE
DATE : 17 MARCH 2010
USE OF WATER FROM BOREHOLES RESTRICTED
The use of borehole water to water gardens between 07:00 and 19:00 has been prohibited with immediate effect in the drought-stricken municipal districts of Mossel Bay, George, Knysna and Bitou. This restriction will also become applicable to the municipal districts of Hessequa and Beaufort-West from the end of the month.
The announcement was made at a meeting in George on 11 March 2010 in connection with the water situation in the Eden district. The meeting was attended by municipal officials as well as representatives from the Western Cape Government and the Department of Water Affairs.
The restriction has been imposed by the Department of Waters Affairs, which is the authority over water boreholes and to whom all enquiries in this regard have to be addressed.
The towns in the area were also instructed to reduce their water consumption by 40% annually, failing which they will be penalised. It was reported at the meeting that Mossel Bay had already cut its water consumption by 49%, the highest in the region at present.
It was furthermore reported at the meeting that provision had been made for the expected influx of visitors to the Southern Cape during the 2010 FIFA World Cup Soccer Tournament, which will take place in South Africa during June and July 2010. Sufficient water will be available during this period.
Good progress is being made in the meantime with the project to purify effluent water, mainly for use by the PetroSA synthetic fuels plant at Mossel Bay. By using purified effluent water instead of raw water, the plant will draw less water from the Wolwedans Dam, which is the Municipality’s main source of water. They have also agreed to close one of their production trains down from April 2010, which will further reduce the pressure on the dam.
According to the Department of Water Affairs, the Wolwedans Dam was 32,4 per cent full at the beginning of the week when a reading was taken. This compares with 33,5 per cent the previous week.
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