ON 14 NOVEMBER 2022 THE DEPARTMENT OF WATER & SANITATION GAZETTED THE FOLLOWING NOTICE TO HAVE AMATOLA WATERS GEOGRAPHICAL AREA EXTENDED TO INCLUDE THE WHOLE OF THE EASTERN CAPE, WHICH WOULD OBVIOUSLY INCLUDE NDLAMBE MUNICIPALITY:
This is of major concern not only to PARRA but also the Ndlambe Ratepayers’ Forum (NRF) and also the Service Delivery Support Group, Ndlambe for Wards 3 & 4 Ndlambe Municipality (SDSG) – (Members: Bushman’s River Mouth Ratepayers’ Organisation, Boesmans-Kariega Estuary Care Management Forum, Kenton-on-Sea Ratepayers Association, Kenton/Boesmans Chamber of Business and Tourism).
ON 26 OCTOBER 2022 THE FOLLOWING LETTER WAS WAS ADDRESSED TO THE MINISTER OF WATER & SANITATION BY SDSG:
SERVICE DELIVERY SUPPORT GROUP, NDLAMBE
FOR WARDS 3 & 4 NDLAMBE LOCAL MUNICIPALITY
(SDSG)
NPO NUMBER (pending) PBO NUMBER (pending)
Email: sdsgndlambe@gmail.com
DATE: 26 October 2022
The Honourable Minister of Water and Sanitation
c/o The Director General: Water and Sanitation
mdakanep@dwa.gov.zacc The chairperson, Amatola Water
aw@amatolawater.co.za
cc The Municipal Manager Ndlambe
kkani@ndlambe.gov.za / gnkombisa@ndlambe.gov.za / rdumezweni@ndlambe.gov.za
Dear Honourable Minister Mchunu
URGENT MINISTERIAL INTERVENTION IS REQUIRED TO ADDRESS AMATOLA WATER’S (AW) INABILITY TO SUPPLY SUFFICIENT WATER FOR WARDS 3 & 4 OF NDLAMBE LOCAL MUNICIPALITY (NLM)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The Albany Coast Reverse Osmosis (ACRO), plant run by Amatola Water (AW) as the Water Service Provider is unable to supply the communities of Wards 3 and 4 of Ndlambe Local Municipality (NLM) with sufficient water and of the required quality.
Members: Bushman’s River Mouth Ratepayers’ Organisation, Boesmans-Kariega Estuary Care Management Forum, Kenton-on-Sea Ratepayers Association, Kenton Boesmans Chamber of Business and Tourism.
This is primarily through their inadequate management practices. They operate on permanent Crisis Management with inadequate Strategic long-term planning with no stability.
The community and NLM, as the Water Service Authority, have lost trust in the ability of AW to successfully manage this vital community service.
Urgent and immediate Ministerial intervention is required to avert further catastrophe in our community.
The problem has existed since 2018 so during the early part of 2021 four civic organizations formed the Service Delivery Support Group (SDSG) which is made up of the Kenton-on-Sea Ratepayer’s Association (Ward 4 of NLM), Bushman’s River Mouth Ratepayers’ Association (Ward 3 NLM), Kenton Boesmans Chamber of Business and Tourism and Estuary Care.
SDSG follows a positive and collaborative approach and offered our service to Ndlambe LM to assist them to resolve this ongoing crisis to the benefit of the whole community. NLM welcomed the offer of collaboration, and this led to a Water Management Committee (WMC) being established. This organization collectively drew up a far-reaching Terms of Reference agreement which was entered into by Amatola Water, DWS, NLM and the SDSG to govern this collaboratively.
A Technical Task Team, made up with representation from each of the four WMC organizations, have met regularly with meetings two to three times a week since September 2021. An SDSG representative chairs these meetings where technical issues are discussed. Amatola have reneged on most of the Terms of Reference agreement and does not apply inputs the Technical Task Team might submit even when inputs are confirmed by certified consultant engineers. Much vital information is also withheld from the TTT members.
All water supplied to the communities is produced by AW as we do not have dams. This has the advantage that there is no dependency on rainfall variations so the plant is designed to cope easily with the yearly demand but is stretched to the limit during the Christmas season yet there have been water restrictions in place every day for the whole of the current calendar year, with some areas that have had to endure months with no water at all. Water is also often not of the required standard. This has been despite constant promises from AW that when the next part is fixed it will be fine. On a good day the plant can only produce about 60% of its design capacity.
Our peak season will commence soon when holidaymakers, (the lifeblood of the economy), arrive with the knowledge that the reservoirs have not been close to being full all year.
A community is also waiting for 500 new homes to be built in the New Year and this project will probably not be allowed to proceed due to insufficient water supply.
A Water Management Committee meeting was called during September 2022 where we asked specifically for a delegation from the Minister’s office to be invited and be present but unfortunately this request was not acceded to by the DWS chairlady.
We expected that NLM and DWS would co-sign this appeal for intervention but, due to time and otherconstraints not known to us, we have been unable to canvass their support. The magnitude of the crisis our community now faces has led us to urgently invite Ministerial intervention to prevent a catastrophe.
The ACRO plant has a negative Social and Environmental impact on the community, as well as sensitive environment in which it operates, which also needs to be urgently addressed.
Reasons for underperforming ACRO Plant
The ACRO plant is a complex non-standardized plant, and it is the only RO plant within the Amatola Water operation. The nature of RO plants necessitates quick reaction time to deal with breakdowns and so management plays a vital role in production as does Mechanical / Technical skills.
- Management factors
Recommended responsibilities of the Plant Manager:
A full time adequately qualified plant manager is needed to:
- Provide leadership and management of staff.
- To have technical skills and know the full workings of the plant.
- To be able to analyze performance of the plant.
- To report directly to the CEO of AW and not under a subsection of AW management.
- To have authority, under the CEO, to determine and implement strategic intervention not encumbered with a long line of procurement procedures.
- To participate with the WMC Technical task Team (TTT) to formulate a strategic plan for the plant to enable it to comply with Blue and Green Drop standards.
- To liaise with AW management and the TTT to develop short, medium, and long-term strategies.
- To implement a Risk Management Plan to prevent breakdowns.
- To install telemetry systems that would cover the entire production from source to reservoir to facilitate good management and so minimize running cost and improve delivery. This to include the Diaz Well Field.
- Record daily data and the data to be monitored to be able to analyse trends to continually contain production costs and to produce quality water at optimum productivity levels.
- Log all breakdowns and be capable to analyse the causes and report these to the AW senior managers and the TTT.
- Issue AW senior managers and SDSG members of the TTT with required daily production reports.
- To instil proper factory disciplines and responsibilities.
- To instil Occupational Health and Safety regulations.
- Manage Social and Environmental aspects of the whole water production and produce a monthly report to the WMC.
- Liaise with AW and NLM on all public notices in water interruption instances.
- Develop and implement a proper management strategy for all wells and boreholes.
A strong and properly motivated request was made by the TTT to AW to appoint a plant manager with reference to Critical Performance Areas as set out above, but the request has been ignored and instead, a panel of engineers on a draw down basis was appointed.
This arrangement is not acceptable as it is not conducive to quick response times, nor does anyone take responsibility for efficiency and profitability of the plant or the cost to the community due to constant breakdowns and inadequate water production.
1.2. Technical factors
Inadequate forward planning has led to the majority of actions being executed are under crisis management. The end result is short term gains with no consideration for the long-term cost and impact. Millions of Rands of equipment have been added to the plant through breakdowns with the cause of the problem largely ignored.
- REQUEST TO THE MINISTER
As representatives of our community and advisors to the WMC and particularly Amatola Water, we respectfully request Ministerial intervention to prevent the persistence and disastrous impact of inadequate fresh water supply to our community. The Christmas Holiday makers have had to be turned away before which led to disastrous economic repercussions that affected the whole community and this upcoming season is in grave jeopardy.
We humbly seek your intervention by ensuring:
2.1 Proper Management of the ACRO Plant
That the current temporary contracted Technical Engineering advisor (Mr. Graham Cowley) remains on site until a permanent ACRO performance-based Plant Manager have been appointed and has been adequately mentored to take full responsibility for the plant.
2.2 The enforcement of the signed and agreed upon terms of the TOR. (Please read the attached document)
2.3 Technical and project management
That Ministerial oversight is applied to ensure technical efficiency and proper project management.
2.4 Social and Environmental responsibility
Ministerial oversight is applied to reduce negative Social and Environmental impact.
2.5 Additional and or alternative water service provider
Investigate the possibility to introduce alternative and or an additional water service provider to mitigate the risk to our community.
The preferred business model would be that a PPP agreement be entered into between the Ndlambe LM and the SDSG and a suitable private company who have the expertise to manage the ACRO plant effectively.
CLOSING STATEMENT
It is requested that a delegation of Ndlambe Local Municipality and SDSG meet with a delegation of the Minister’s office to discuss the challenges and to determine a way forward in the interests of our community.
Yours faithfully.
Lötter Wepener
SDSG Chairperson
ISSUES AND CONCERNS RAISED IN THE CORRESPONDENCE ON 26 OCTOBER 2022 WERE AGAIN RAISED WHEN THEY CAME TO FRUITION IN NOVEMBER 2022 AND ACCORDINGLY MR WEPENER SENT A FOLLOW UP LETTER ON 21 NOVEMBER 2022:
SERVICE DELIVERY SUPPORT GROUP, NDLAMBE
FOR WARDS 3 & 4 NDLAMBE LOCAL MUNICIPALITY
(SDSG)
NPO NUMBER PBO NUMBER
Email: sdsgndlambe@gmail.com
DATE: 21 November 2022
The Honourable Minister of Water and Sanitation
c/o The Director General: Water and Sanitation
cc The chairperson, Amatola Water
cc The Municipal Manager Ndlambe
kkani@ndlambe.gov.za / gnkombisa@ndlambe.gov.za / rdumezweni@ndlambe.gov.za
Dear Honourable Minister Mchunu
URGENT MINISTERIAL INTERVENTION IS REQUIRED TO ADDRESS AMATOLA WATER’S (AW) INABILITY TO SUPPLY SUFFICIENT WATER FOR WARDS 3 & 4 OF NDLAMBE LOCAL MUNICIPALITY (NLM)
This is a follow-up to the letter that we sent to you on the 26th October copy of which I enclose. The crisis we thought probable in October has now happened. Today was day ZERO where the water in storage is below the minimum legal strategic levels and it is all due to bad management. All water used within Wards 3 and 4 of Ndlambe Municipality is from a few shallow wells but the main supply is from the Reverse Osmosis of seawater. We have no dam storage, so our water supply is not rain-dependent but relies on Amatola to manage the RO plant correctly. For the duration of 2022, they have not been able to fill the reservoir once, and for the most part of the year, the community has lived with water restrictions. The loss of revenue to AW could be as high as R2 Mil alone.
We are a few days away from this holiday destination needing a minimum of 3.5 Megalitres of water per day to satisfy demand and we have empty reservoirs with a current supply, when available, not being able to produce 60% of the demand.
We have had no response from the previous email we sent but at this moment in time, this whole community is in crisis, and this needs immediate Ministerial intervention. Amatola Water is not able to manage this plant and the proof has been that since the new Board was instituted earlier this year, much effort has been brought to bear on Amatola Water Management to get the plant to produce what it is designed to produce but it has not come close to meeting that expectation.
The Technical Task Team of the Water Management Committee has consistently, over the past 15 months of its existence, made AW aware of not having sufficient raw water supply. This SDSG has hired engineers to come up with solutions, yet AW has consistently ignored all warnings given even when given by professional engineers. In the final weeks before the high-demand period, we once again witness AW continue to operate in crisis mode as it has done for years. ONLY NOW are they calling for RFQs to try and fix the raw water extraction points that they have been glaringly aware of for years.
We appeal to the Minister to consider removing AW from their embarrassing incompetency and replacing them with one of many professional companies that know how to manage and run a highly technical operation at better rates. AW is not equipped to manage this operation as this is the only RO plant within their portfolio and it cannot be run as part of their management system.
We seek immediate intervention to be able to minimize the current disastrous situation.
Yours faithfully.
Lötter Wepener
SDSG Chairperson
ON 7 JANUARY 2023 THE NDLAMBE RATEPAYERS’ FORUM (NRF), CHAIRED BY PARRA’S CHAIRMAN MR DAWIE VAN WYK, SENT THE FOLLOWING CORRESPONDENCE TO OPPOSE THE EXTENSION OF AMATOLA WATER’S GEOGRAPHICAL AREA TO INCLUDE THE WHOLE OF THE EASTERN CAPE:
