Amathole
Water is an imperative human need, without clean, drinkable water there will certainly be a great deal of hardship, sickness and misery. Whether water is a right or a privilege a country needs to provide its people with clean water, and the social and economic benefits are not debatable. South Africa is one of the driest countries in the world and with a skew rainfall pattern, it makes managing the water resources difficult. As the population and the economy grow, the need for freshwater will also increase. The different stakeholders, including government and the private sector, need to find innovative means to supply this growing demand.
Amathole District Municipality (ADM) is one of the District Municipality that has been hardly hit by water outages especially the area of Mbhashe owing to insufficient rainfalls that have resulted in drought. Three local municipalities are experiencing adverse water conditions, viz Mbashe (Dutywa), Mnquma (Butterworth) and Nqgushwa (Peddie).
ADM has in several instances had to express deep regrets for this undesired inconvenience caused to all affected communities. Though the ADM has had to recommit to continue treating each water problem reported with utmost priority, under this circumstance a permanent solution is equally desirable.
Water tankers have already been dispatched to cart water from Butterworth to supplement the dwindling supply. At present the water carting has been restricted to Doti and Goven Mbeki.
Plastic tanks have been placed in strategic locations and water from the tankers is being dispatched into these tanks.
An old borehole has been equipped and a pipeline has been laid to some of the plastic tanks.
Three new boreholes have been drilled and are currently being equipped. Pipelines have to be installed to connect these boreholes to the existing supply lines. One is complete and is already supplementing supply and the electricity connection is outstanding on the second one. The third borehole has yet to be equipped. If water usage is managed very carefully, these boreholes have sufficient capacity to satisfy the basic needs of the Dutywa Community
Background
In an attempt to bring solutions to the water problem, the Amathole District Municipality (ADM) appointed the Amathole Economic Development Agency (ASPIRE) as the Implementing Agent for the Drilling and Testing of boreholes in ADM. The project is designed to make clean, safe and sustainable water accessible to ADM communities with a broader goal of improving their health and livelihoods. In implementing the project ASPIRE appointed Mvesto Investments to drill, monitor and install boreholes in ADM local municipalities.
Project Objectives
The objective of the project was to conduct groundwater exploration and install solar-powered boreholes to meet the water requirements in ADM local municipalities.
