The Tshwane’s Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) responsible for Utility Services, Mr Abel Tau, had rejected media reports that he was at the Temba Water Treatment Plant on 20 June 2019 to inspect the water.
He said he was there with stakeholders for a follow-up water sampling activity carried out by the City and National Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) in and around the area of Hammanskraal.
Subsequent to the MMC’s visit to Hammanskraal, the media reported that “residents will continue to drink water that is possibly unsafe”.
The MMC said he is ensuring residents in Hammanskraal and nearby arears, that the City, in co-operation with DWS and Human Rights Commission (HRC), will make every effort to ensure that water quality stays 100% compliant.
“The results of the water samples taken will be made known to the residents, as we are an administration that is open, honest and responsive”, said Mr Tau.
He said the water supplied in Hammanskraal is per the set standard and is drinkable and that the involved stakeholders had gone there to take water samples and not inspect the water.
He said the City disapproves the notion that monitoring points had challenges with colour, turbidity, ammonia and some general microbiological determinants. “This is because the officials present mutually agreed that the water colour is acceptable and went on to drink and smell the water, once again we found it to be completely suitable for drinking”.
He said it is imprecise to suggest that samples were taken by the DWS only because the City of Tshwane officials had been present throughout the visit as this was a joint sampling between DWS and the City.
The visit by Cllr Tau follows a complaint that was lodged last year, with the Human Rights Commission by Hammanskraal residents about concerns of water quality in that area.
“As a City that is committed to delivering high quality services, of which water provisioning is but one, it was prudent for us to undertake a visit in the Hammanskraal vicinity as this is part of an on-going process of sampling throughout the City where the metro municipality supplies water”, says Cllr Tau.
