24 Jun 2015

The Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) says there are no proven direct links that the colour of water supply in Maun has adverse health impact.

North West council chairperson, Mr Reaboka Mbulawa, said this when updating council on the water supply situation in the district. Mr Reaboka said the corporation had promised that supplied water would continuously be monitored to ensure that it did not pose a threat to public health.

He noted that the colour of water originated from the Thamalakane river and it became more pronounced after the November rains which brought along the build-up of decaying vegetation and organisms.

Mr Mbulawa said the colour of water had of late been an issue in Maun, adding that Thamalakane River had been progressively drying up to alarming levels and only rejuvenated recently.

He said WUC struggled for some time to get the right balance of their treating chemicals and finally made a breakthrough after reducing the water flow rate in the plant, which unfortunately affected the amount of treated water that could be produced.

Mr Mbulawa revealed that water supply had not been satisfactory particularly in Maun, as well as those villages supplied from the Slow Sand Filtration Plants.

He said plants at Mohembo East, Sepopa and Shakawe had past their design life and were unable to meet the ever increasing demands. The frequent clogging of the filtering media had worsened the situation, he added.

“We will continue to lobby for the upgrading of these plants to be more efficient and reliable water treatment systems,” he added.

About Wenela plant, Mr Mbulawa stated WUC has concluded that the rehabilitation of the existing plant would be of limited benefit since it was undersized and lacked some critical treatment process to assure the appropriate treatment of delta waters which exhibits fluctuating and difficult settling characteristics.

He noted that the short term solutions being considered under the Maun Water Supply Distribution System Rehabilitation, Maun Water Supply and Sanitation Upgrade Phase II and other associated works project of which the Water Affairs department is the client, is the construction of a dedicated line from the Shashe Booster Station tapping from the line before the Kubung tanks.

For short term intervention, he added, would be the zoning of the existing reticulation through the introduction of strategically positioned isolation valves, in-line booster pumps and some pipeline realignments to improve pressures and overall system performance.

Mr Mbulawa said the project would continue with the long term system design which addresses the complete upgrading of the entire water supply scheme over the entire design period. ENDS