Water restrictions could be next in line for Free State businesses and residents if scheduled power cuts increase, Bloemfontein businessmen heard on Thursday.
Chief executive of BloemWater, Nolene Morris, told a meeting of the Bloemfontein Chamber of Commerce and Industry the water supplier was completely dependent on Eskom or Centlec, the local bulk electricity supplier.
”The regular load-shedding within a 24 hour period reduces our ability to fill reservoirs by 70%. It’s barely enough for drinking water in the bigger Mangaung area.”
Morris said in terms of a water perspective the situation was very ”bleak” with regular power failures.
”We cannot service our industrial areas, Bloemdustria; we cannot supply our municipal clients with water with power outages, with load-shedding. It impacts our services directly.”
BloemWater has two treatment plants, located at the Rustfontein Dam about 45km from Bloemfontein and the Welbedagt Dam near Wepener, about 150km away.
”It would cost millions,” Morris said, adding that generators were ”not even an option”.
She said BloemWater was more than willing to work on a proactive solution with Centlec and Eskom to minimise the impact of power failures on the supply of water.
BloemWater supplies water to the Mangaung Local Municipality (Bloemfontein, Thaba Nchu and Botshabelo) and most of the rural Free State.
Eskom’s regional manager for customer service, Marion Hughes, said the situation the region was facing would continue for the next five years.
”Demand is more than supply, that is the bottom line,” she told the businessmen.
She said Eskom was now focusing on maintaining and improving the current levels of the plant’s performance.
Shimi Poolo, executive manager of business development at Centlec, told the businessmen the only way out of the current situation was ”using electricity sparingly and to be prepared for power cuts”.
He said municipal departments had been encouraged to buy generators with ”underspend” money to pump water from one reservoir to another in the city.
Poolo said although the power failures had no real effect on aspects of waste removal, the treatment of human waste ”could be a challenge” if electricity supplies failed for longer periods. – Sapa