What a (water) indaba!
Makana Municipality’s Water Indaba concluded on Wednesday 15 September with high expectations.
Delegates lauded the event a great success, and were optimistic that promises made by the Director of
Technical and Infrastructural Services would be fulfi lled. KCC Chairperson, Dr Jim Cambray, was pleased
What a (water) indaba!
Makana Municipality’s Water Indaba concluded on Wednesday 15 September with high expectations.
Delegates lauded the event a great success, and were optimistic that promises made by the Director of
Technical and Infrastructural Services would be fulfi lled. KCC Chairperson, Dr Jim Cambray, was pleased
that the long-awaited Amatola Water “10-point plan” to improve Grahamstown’s water situation was
made public by the municipality. The 10 key focus areas are:
| Product quality |
Customer satisfaction |
Employee/ leadership development |
Water resource adequacy |
Community sustainability |
| Financial viability |
Infrastructure stability |
Operational resiliency |
Operational optimisation |
Stakeholder support |
Delegates are still hoping to receive a collated copy of the action plan developed during the last session
of the indaba. This had been promised “by the end of the week”.
Classified information not for idiots
There is some concern that local municipalities have been authorised to classify certain information. For
example, data on hundreds of dysfunctional sewage treatment plants will not be made public.
According to Water and Environmental Affairs Minister, Buyelwa Sonjica, revealing “certain information”
could lead to “serious misinterpretation” of data and “unnecessary additional administrative challenges”.
Reading between the lines, this could be taken to imply that ratepayers and residents lack the
critical faculties to engage intelligently with information that has implications for their own health and
wellbeing. It also suggests that our fl edgling democracy is rather less functional than we would hope.
Only 449 of South Africa’s 852 municipal WWTWs (waste water treatment works) were assessed in the
recent Green Drop Report.
According to News 24, this could be attributed in some cases to municipal officials’ failure to release information to the Department of Water Affairs because they lacked confi dence in their own competence.
In other cases, municipalities have simply not been managing waste water services according to the required standards. Source: http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Broken-sewage-info-not-for-public-govt-20100915
Water monitoring promotes care
On 18 September, Kowie Catchment Campaign chairperson, Dr Jim Cambray, organised a World Water
Monitoring Day (WWMD) outing with the Khanya Maths and Science Club.
The 11 club members, together with facilitator Joyce Sewry and two reporters, accompanied Dr Cambray to a number of sites along the Kowie River catchment.
At each site, the group did a sniff test, a visual inspection, and used the WWMD test kit. Their fi rst stop was Fair View Spring a popular place where locals collect drinking water.
The WWMD group found the water quality is excellent. By the time the clear mountain water reaches the second site in the Belmont Valley, the water is discoloured, foamy and slightly smelly.
Further
downstream in the Blaauwkrantz Nature Reserve, the water quality is still poor as a result of pollution
from Grahamstown and farming activities.
World Water Monitoring Day activities can serve as a valuable educational tool to promote better care of our water resources.
One of the club members said, “The only water fi t to drink is from the spring; we must all take care of this site. We must also improve the quality of the river water.”
The Maths and Science Club is an outreach programme of Rhodes University. The club leader, Joyce Sewry, received a Community Engagement award this year.
Cambray, who works at the Albany Museum Makana Biodiversity Centre, has been involved in WWMD since its inception in 2002. More info: http://www.kowiecatchmentcampaign.org.za and http://www.worldwatermonitoringday.org/
Solar challenge comes to Makana
The SA Solar Challenge is in Grahamstown tonight! Keep your eyes open for team members from Germany,
Japan, Iran and South Africa.
If you are lucky, you may also have a chance to chat with the race director, old Rhodian Winstone Jordaan.
Organised by the Advanced Energy Foundation and the Innovation Hub, the race aims to promote science and technology in Southern Africa and showcase the potential of renewable energy sources for motoring and other industries.
The bi-annual solar car race is expected to grow into “the World Cup of renewable energy racing,” attracting top solar teams across the world.
Teams participating in the race are required to design their own engineering systems, build their own vehicles, and race these from start to finish.
The South African route goes through some of the most demanding terrain ever experienced by solar cars. More info: email winstone@solarchallenge.org.za, call 083 284 7747, or visit http://www.solarchallenge.org.za/ Contact Nikki Köhly: n.kohly@ru.ac.za, 046 603 7205
