New Reservoirs in SA

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New Reservoirs in SA

Gauteng's Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality is Pressing on with a R7bn Plan to Upgrade its Water Infrastructure, which Includes Building New Reservoirs as Well as Installing an "Early Warning System"

Water and energy member of the mayoral committee Aubrey Nxumalo said on Tuesday that this was to avoid a repeat of last month's service collapse. Ekurhuleni was the municipality worst affected by the water shortages, and had to use tankers to transport water to affected areas.

Areas affected included Benoni, Tsakane and Germiston, along with suburbs such as Bedfordview and Primrose. The government blamed cable theft and technical glitches.

If the council gets its way, Ekurhuleni will become the third municipality in SA — after Cape Town and eThekwini metropolitan municipalities — to have a telemetric water system with synchronised reservoirs. This will allow the municipality to direct water between reservoirs in accordance with demand — something it cannot do currently.

Ekurhuleni is planning to build 20 reservoirs by the year 2021 to supplement its 71 reservoirs, many of which are ageing and will have reached the end of their life cycle within seven years.

Mr Nxumalo said the new reservoirs would address ageing infrastructure and increased demand due to population growth as a result of urbanisation and the future amalgamation of Lesedi local municipality into Ekurhuleni.

"We need spatial connectivity, which is why we are developing a telemetry system, so that when reservoir A is low on water, it can get water from reservoir C…. We will work to have the telemetry system in place before the end of June 2015," Mr Nxumalo said.

Reservoirs will be built in Benoni, Brakpan and Kempton Park, among other areas, each costing more than R190m. Mr Nxumalo said the metro would consider various sources of funding, including the Treasury and provincial government, extracting funds from its own revenue as well as tapping municipal loan facilities and bond markets.

Source: BDLive

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