(Picture by Lisa Marie Theck)

Sedgefield residents will surely be forgiven for being confused when it comes to our water supply – or often lack thereof.
Over the last two weeks local community WhatsApp groups and social media pages have been hit with a series of regular warnings.

“Reservoirs critically low.
The reservoirs in Sedgefield have reached critically low levels. Residents are urged to drastically reduce water consumption to prevent further depletion.
To assist affected areas, water trucks will be deployed to high-lying regions.
We appeal to the community to use water sparingly and only for essential purposes.
Your cooperation is crucial in managing this crisis.”

Whilst most locals will take this seriously – with some undoubtedly thinking back to the height of the drought of 2008/2009 during which the Karatara river ran dry and the town had to truck in water by road from George to fill the reservoirs – the big question from everyone has to be WHY?

Why are the three reservoirs (1x 4 Megalitre on Cloud 9 and two smaller ones in Blombos) at a critically low level, when there has been rainfall at least once a week? Further – it was less than a fortnight ago that a warning was issued that Karatara River was almost in flood as it was lapping at the sides of the causeway.

Is this lack of water drought-related? Just last year Sedgefield and Knysna were upgraded to Drought Level 2, Water Restriction Level 3, and hit with punitive water tariffs.

At the Ward 2 Councillor’s feedback meeting held in Sedgefield Town Hall on Thursday 6 March these questions were put to Municipal Manager Mapholoba and the other officials present, but there were no clear answers.

The Municipal team did point out that the Water & Sanitation Department had critical positions vacant in upper management, and that the telemetry system (by which the levels of water in Sedgefield’s three reservoirs is measured), is currently not working ‘up to speed’ as it is in urgent need of an upgrade, and that a tender has been issued for this.

Deputy Chair of the Sedgefield Ratepayers Association, Andy Brough asked for further clarification, wanting to know if, with the telemetry failing, anyone would be able report the actual levels of the reservoirs at any given time.

The answer was, quite shockingly, no.

“If you can’t measure our water levels, we as a town are at risk,” said Brough, raising his hands in desperation.

Chairman Kevin Barnes was equally frustrated. “We see week after week the claim that there is no water for Sedgefield. We know there IS water for Sedgefield, it is just not being managed,” he told the Municipal Manager.

He also pointed out that the continued debacle of faulty water meters would not be helping the situation at all. With a reported 70% of the prepaid meters allowing the free (unmetered) flow of water, he reasoned that the loss of revenue must be having a devastating effect on infrastructure maintenance.

“It seems we are not being serious about water. We NEED to be serious about water,” he said.

Following the meeting, and indeed another ‘Reservoir Levels Critically Low’ warning circulated the next Sunday, The EDGE sent questions to the municipality asking for further details of the water shortage and the cause(s) so that the community could be informed.

The reply received before going to press was as follows.

The recent water interruption in Sedgefield was due to high usage, loadshedding, and a faulty generator.
Currently, three of our six boreholes are fully operational. We are prioritising the replacement and repair of the non-functional boreholes to restore our infrastructure to optimal capacity.
To address these challenges comprehensively, we have outlined a detailed plan focusing on infrastructure maintenance, system upgrades, and contingency strategies. This plan is incorporated into our current budget to ensure timely execution.