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SOUTH AFRICA: Water Supply Proposal Sparks Controversy and Suspicion

Steven Lang

GRAHAMSTOWN, Apr 29 2008 (IPS) - A plan to increase the supply of potable water to two coastal towns in South Africa&#39s Eastern Cape Province is provoking heated debate.

The 110 million dollar proposal to provide more drinking water to Port Alfred and Kenton-on-Sea was drawn up by the local water utility (the Albany Coast Water Board), a consulting engineering group and a private sector financial institution. Growing water consumption in the towns is a result of population increases in these areas and their popularity as tourist destinations.

At first glance, it might seem surprising that either of the towns should face water shortages, as Port Alfred is situated on the perennial Kowie River, while Kenton-on-Sea is bordered by two rivers: the Bushmans and the Kariega.

However, water in the catchment area of these rivers has a high salinity due to the marine origins of rock formations in the region. Dams used to supply the two towns and other small villages in the region need to be flushed out periodically to ensure their continued viability.

The proposal sparking the current controversy would see an increased diversion of water from South Africa&#39s largest reservoir, the Gariep Dam, along an existing tunnel to the Fish River. This additional water would be drawn off the river downstream, treated at a reservoir near the south-eastern town of Grahamstown, and then channelled through a new pipeline to Kenton-on-Sea and Port Alfred.

However, Denis Hughes, director of the Grahamstown-based Institute for Water Research, notes that "…the water yield of the Orange River system and the Gariep Dam is already fully allocated." The Gariep Dam is on the Orange River.

For other critics, the proposal is too expensive and complicated. As large parts of the Orange River catchment area are drought prone, Port Alfred and Kenton-on-Sea could suffer water shortages even in times of good rainfall if they become dependent on the Gariep Dam for their water supplies.

Hughes is also unhappy with what he describes as inadequate answers given to a number of questions that were raised at a public participation meeting about the proposal, held in early March.

Matters queried at the meeting included water quality and environmental issues, and other options for improving water supplies to the coastal towns.

A local conservation organisation, the Kowie Catchment Campaign (KCC), suggests that serious consideration be given to the construction of a desalination plant as an alternative source of fresh water. Port Alfred already receives some of its water supplies from a small desalination plant; however, Bigen Africa, the consulting engineering company for the pipeline proposal, argues that desalination is too expensive.

According to DWAF, desalination treatment typically costs one dollar per kilolitre. By comparison the cost of conventional water treatment is between a quarter and a third of that figure.

The secretive process of promoting the pipeline project has aroused suspicions among local residents. Members of the public and the media were barred from a Bigen Africa presentation of its project feasibility study to the municipality in Grahamstown on Apr. 20.

"They are forcing us to accept the scheme as a fait accompli," says the KCC&#39s Nikki Kohly.

The KCC is also concerned about the quality of the water that currently finds its way via the Kowie River into the Port Alfred water distribution system.

Large open storm water drains constructed in the 1800s run along the sides of several streets in Grahamstown about 60 kilometres upstream; when it rains, the polluted contents of these drains eventually empties into the Kowie River.

KCC spokesman Jim Cambay says streams flowing from the drains are in a terrible state: "They are treated as open refuse areas, and when the rains come most of the litter is flushed down to the farms along Belmont Valley."

The KCC relies almost exclusively on photographic records to monitor streams in the Kowie catchment area. The group sends the photographs to the local municipality and to the Albany Museum in Grahamstown so that members of the public are able to examine evidence of the deteriorating condition of the stream beds.

Photographic records do not reveal anything about the quality of water in the streams, however.

Cambay says he would like to conduct chemical tests on the water; but as the KCC does not have sufficient funds for this, it tries to persuade the municipality to share its records – a process that has proved frustrating.

"For the past five years I have tried to get the water quality records from the municipality regarding what is released into the Kowie River from the sewerage works," notes Cambay.

The storm water drains form part of the area&#39s sewerage system.