The residence of Temba in Hamanskraal this past week woke up to find the tap water having a green-brown color.
This occurred as the Temba Water Treatment Works (WTW) had begun receiving poor raw water quality because of the partially treated effluent being discharged from the Rooiwal (WWTW).
The background to the issues at Hammanskraal stems back to 2004, when reports were presented to the ANC government highlighting that there was an urgent need to address the wastewater infrastructure in the area.
Tshwane mayor Cllr Randall Williams said the solution to the wate crisis in Hammanskraal is not political, “the DA has done more to tackle the water crisis compared to the previous administration.
“Last week I received a report produced by ActionSA which sought to again put the issues of Hammanskraal in the spotlight. This is not the first report of this nature that the city has received.
“Matters in Hammanskraal came to a head in August – November 2019 when reports on the poor quality of water in the area were released by the SA Human Rights Commission, the CSIR, Afriforum and Outa.
“Curiously, the ActionSA report did not reflect on this 2019 period and I suspect it is deliberately omitted in their report because it was during this time that current ActionSA Tshwane mayoral candidate, Abel Tau, was the Tshwane Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for the Department of Water and Electricity,” said Cllr Williams.
Member of the ANCYL, Mr Fortune Mathabathe said, the water crisis in Hammanskraal dates as far back prior to 1994 when the Rooival treatment plant was established.
“The plant itself was built to provide water to small affluent areas that were reserved for whites and when the ANC took over the government, it had to then readjust the water supply to include Hammanskraal Townships as well.
“The ANC under Sputla Ramokgopa then took a decision to build a new treatment plant in Temba so that Hammanskraal can clean and supply its own water to residents. During this period the water was still not 100% but the Sputla administration made it a point that the water remained fit for human consumption, it is only when the DA took over Tshwane that the quality of water deteriorated to the standard that we see today,” said Mr Mathabathe.
