Put simply: We compiled the municipality’s own data, proved that Ward 10’s water losses must be addressed, and the Mayor has made our water infrastructure issue the #1 priority for the 22/23 IDP budget.
Getting the municipality to take our water issues seriously is a critical step in getting them addressed. We achieved this by analyzing the municipality’s own data.
Here’s how we did it.
What We Found
With the help of our team of volunteers we went through the documents on the OM website. Among those documents were Water Services Plans containing water loss rates dating back to 2003 for our Buffels River supply, and all of the other sources within the Overstrand. Each report looked at only 1 to 5 years of data at a time.
We compiled the data for the full 18 years in the table below, and chose 3 areas to put into a chart.
The average water losses for Greater Hermanus (green) are 12.3%, which is better than the international average (dashed green line) of 15% and equates to about the loss of one full year’s worth of water every 8 years.
The average water losses for Kleinmond (blue) are 28.3%, which is better than the national average (dashed purple line) of 41% and equates to about the loss of one full year’s worth of water every 4 years.
The average water losses for our area of Buffels River (orange) are 53.9%, which equates to about the loss of one full year’s worth of water every 2 years.
Not included in this chart are the numbers for 2021/22 as they are still in progress. At least one month during this period had a water loss above 80%.
The Power of Data
The measurements above were provided to Mayor Rabie, Cllr Theresa Els and the Mayco. As a result the Mayor convened a meeting in Kleinmond on 19 April 2022 for both Ward 9 and 10, and included the Ratepayers’ Associations and other affected parties. She provided us with the results of an internal report assessing the state of the current pipes. This report estimates that it will cost R288 million to replace all of our failing water infrastructure.
Actions taken include:
- The Mayor established a committee, headed by Speaker Grant Cohen, to manage the replacement process. Wayne, Graeme, Rob and I will be part of this committee as we are extremely committed to this issue on behalf of all ratepayers and residents in Betty’s Bay.
- The Mayor has made our water infrastructure issue the #1 priority for the 2022/23 IDP budget. This means money that can be spared from other areas will be redirected to addressing our water issues.
The Mayor also made clear that the infrastructure must be replaced with a system that is of good, lasting quality – therefore that it will be done properly, with an eye to the future.
To be clear, we still have a long way to go in order to achieve our end goal but through the use of performance measurement we are now headed in the right direction.
Not All Heroes Wear Capes
I want to extend my sincere gratitude to the volunteers who assisted with gathering the data and who are still working hard on our behalf.
Together, the team:
- Combed through the OM website for old water reports;
- Scoured the documents for rates of water loss;
- Accurately recorded the numbers for our spreadsheet;
- Standardized the data so it could be compared directly;
- Generated the above charts.
For one person to do all of the above could take several weeks of tedious labour. We were able to divide the work amongst us, who each contributed a little of their time in the area(s) they were best suited to. Many hands make light work!
Thank you to everyone who participated in the water loss records effort, and to the Mayor and Cllr Theresa Els, who recognized the severity of the situation and are taking action on our behalf.
Volunteer to Help Hold OM Accountable
We have other areas that can also benefit from performance measurement, such as service delivery, waste management, storm water and budget allocations.
Are you able to help with any of the following?
- Search the OM website for documents?
- Download documents and skim for statistics?
- Record findings in a spreadsheet?
We need your help! A few hours of your time doing something as basic as skimming a municipal report for the numbers and transcribing them onto a spreadsheet will make a difference.
Please contribute to our next big push for accountability by clicking on the link below:
The support and cooperation of everyone in Betty’s Bay will play an important part in our achieving what needs to be accomplished.