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34

PROBLEMS WITH GRAHAMSTOWN’S WATER

SUPPLY AND SANITATION

The goal of ensuring sustainable and reliable water supply

and adequate sanitation in Grahamstown is faced with several

challenges, including:

• The possibility of substantial reductions in rainfall by the end

of this century like most of Southern Africa (IPCC 2007).

• Historical inequities in service delivery between

Grahamstown East and West, with the previously white West

receiving comprehensive services, and paying for them,

while much delayed and often sub-standard services in the

East are combined with a historical reluctance and inability to

pay. A local councillor wrote in December 2006 “…the sum

of unpaid accounts has steadily increased such that it is now

in excess of one year’s operating budget, which has virtually

eliminated the capacity of the municipality to purchase new

equipment and squeezes the maintenance budget to about

6 per cent of the operating budget” (quoted in Maki and

Mullins 2007).

• Outdated and unreliable infrastructure, which has not been

maintained adequately. The pumps and pipelines from

Howison’s Poort to Waainek were installed in 1931 and

could provide 2 050 litres per minute up the 454 m lift to

Waainek, which was then the highest lift in the country. In

2010 Howison’s Poort was empty, and when it refilled in

December, the pumps, unused for several months, failed to

operate and had to be repaired.

• Inadequate technical capacity among municipal employees.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS AND

SUSTAINABILITY APPROACHES

The provision of bulk water, and the treatment and disposal

of wastewater from a community of more than one hundred

thousand will necessarily have environmental impacts. The

regulation, storage and abstraction of water from local rivers

disrupt their flow and geographical continuity, with severe

consequences to the riverine biodiversity. The disposal of even

treated water has consequences for the downstream water

quality, in terms of increased salinity and nutrients. In addition

to these consequences of urban development, Grahamstown’s

water footprint is partly responsible for environmental

problems in a wider geographical area. The Orange/Great

Fish water transfer, on which Grahamstown relies for much