Tender process delay sees Hammanskraal residents' wait for clean water continue
As part of its three-year plan to restore clean drinking water to Hammanskraal, Magalies Water and the Tshwane Municipality planned to install a portable water purification plant by March this year.
A resident collects water in Hammanskraal. Picture: AFP/ Michele Spatari
JOHANNESBURG - Residents of Hammanskraal will have to wait until September before they get clean drinking water.
It has been over a year since a cholera outbreak hit the Pretoria North town, leading to the deaths of 23 people in the area.
Since then, the City of Tshwane declared the water in the area unsafe to drink.
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As part of its three-year plan to restore clean drinking water to Hammanskraal, Magalies Water and the Tshwane Municipality planned to install a portable water purification plant by March this year.
The plant would have been able to provide about 40 megalitres of clean tap water to Hammanskraal every day.
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However, Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink said delays in the tender processes had resulted in the capital city pushing back the deadline.
"Delays can happen in any project but if delays happen due to incompetence or willfulness then there is a blame worthines in this instance because we're doing probably the biggest package plant that’s ever been done in the history of the country. The delays were as Magalies and Water and Sanitation explained to us, they were understandable," said Brink.
In the meantime, the Tshwane Municipality will continue to deploy water tankers in Hammanskraal, at a cost of about R8 million a month.