By Sniko Lukubeni
The Eastern Cape has been facing extreme drought conditions caused by lower than average rainfall. The Makana Municipality has had water restrictions in place since February 2016 (Grahamstown & frontier country, 2017).
There were stories circulating that due to the water crisis we are facing Rhodes University might close down. On Thursday 14 March 2019, there was a Water Crisis Conference held at Eden Grove, one of the lecture theatres at Rhodes University, where the Head of Hydrology and the Senior Social Media Manager came to address the plans of the University to save water. The Senior Social Media Manager Ilva Pieterse clearly stated that the University will not close down because of the water crisis, she added by saying that if the University was planning to close this would be done in a transparent manner.
The Head of Hydrology Dr Jane Tanner said that the University is installing smart water metres at all residences on campus, these smart metres will not only reduce water pressure flow but will cut off the water supply completely after the 50 litres per person daily limit has been reached. She added by saying that P-Mats (eliminates odours) have been added to all urinals, and they are chlorinating the water from water collection containers to ensure that the water is sanitized for flushing toilets. The Rhodes University has placed grey water and drinking water tanks all around campus; there is a transport that transports the grey water and borehole water to these water tanks.
At the conference the students raised a lot of questions, one of which was that Rhodes seems to be focusing only on the students on campus, what about the ones who live off campus with the same water problems? Ilva Pieterse answered by saying that the students who live off campus fall under the municipality’s water crisis measures. The Municipality also has its own measures to save water, it has banned the Fire Department’s red truck from pumping water from fire hydrants instead the red truck should pump water from the Grey Dam and Dog Dam.
Ilva Pieterse also said that eight tankers were hired by the Municipality from 26 February to deliver water to Makanda East.
The two ladies, Dr Jane Tanner and Ilva Pieters, said that the Municipality announced that even though it rained and the rain had a positive impact on one of the dams, it had no significance. It was only the Hoorweison’s Poort dam which was at 21.3% on 11 March from 18.3%. The Settler’s Dam was at 9.1% from 9.3% after the rain.
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