Olwethu Xabanisa
Buffalo City has become the second Metro in the Eastern Cape to implement a precautionary "boil water alert" in order to protect the health of consumers.
Residents are urged to boil water before drinking it or cooking with it, until further notice.
Just 21 days ago BCM Mayor Xola Pakati gave the assurance that running tap water in the metro was safe to drink.
Pakati paid a visit to the Metro's Umzonyana Water Treatment works, in Scenery Park following complaints about water quality and change of colour.
He even gobbled up a glass of water in full view of the media.
Spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya says based on recent tests conducted at the plant, above normal turbidity has been observed.
He says the plant supplies treated drinking water to consumers in the East London and Mdantsane areas, including from Sunrise on Sea, Gonubie, Beacon Bay, Nahoon, Abbotsford, Vincent, Cambridge, Southernwood, Selborne, Chiselhurst, CBD, Amalinda, Dawn, Westbank, Sunnyridge, Buffalo Flats, Duncan Village, Winterstrand, Needs Camp, Ncera Villages up to Kaysers Beach) and Mdantsane (NU1 to NU17).
Ngwenya says since the recent reports issued on water quality by the City, including changing of chemicals toward the end of January and early February 2022, the City has been closely monitoring the quality of our raw water, effectiveness of treatment, and water quality post-treatment.
The alternate treatment chemicals initially improved the quality of treated drinking water but have since contributed to other operational issues experienced at the treatment plant.
BCMM highlighted the following issues:
There is excessive production of sludge during the water treatment process that must be removed to improve the quality.
Production (the volume of water treated) will be reduced while dealing with the problem
Laboratory tests will be carried out to confirm if the current water treatment chemicals used are contributing to the excessive sludge
Outages
The above process is set to take approximately 12 hours to achieve conclusive results. During this period deterioration in water quality will be observed on taps, as well as
additional water outages experienced in the supply areas.
BCM says certain suburbs are currently experiencing extended water outages due to insufficient supply of water and tankers will be dispersed.
The Metro will provide an update on Wednesday.
