Highlighting the water problems that the town of Port St

Johns will be facing shortly

To ensure that the Municipal area of Port

St Johns had adequate water supplies

to meet the requirements of the town

and surrounding rural areas, a

remarkable water storage and

reticulation scheme was developed and

implemented, one which would

supposedly allow the area to be self

sufficient for years………

………a series of linked and

interdependent dams were to be

constructed and these fed, in the case of

the containment dams by water abstracted

from the Umgazi River, and in the case of

the main Port St Johns dam, by water

obtained from the surrounding catchment

area. The dams and infrastructure , built at

a cost of R? million to the tax payer and

were commissioned in about 2004…

The dams are located as shown in this image…

Water would be pumped the short distance (0.12km) from

the Umgazi River into the Umgazi Retaining dam ……..Photo taken 27th July 2009

……as shown in this Google map of 2004, which

shows the dam full of water ….

Umgazi River

Retaining Dam

………from there water would be

piped to the header dam located on the

hilltop over looking the main Port St

John supply dam, and from there it was

to be distributed to the town and

surrounding areas……..

Google image taken 2004 showing position of dams in relation to one

another, plus filtration plant. Note that the header dam contained water at

that stage

……..as of July 2009 this water containment system

is lying empty and the town of Port St Johns is,

with the current rate of water usage and abuse,

facing the situation there shortly being no water to

service the needs of the town inhabitants.

Supplies to rural areas have already been curtailed,

the Umgazi containment dam looks like this……

……..empty, apart from a small amount of water at its

lowest point…… the header dam looks like this…..(This dam is 0.5km long by 0.18km at its widest point)

…….despite being lined with a water proof membrane, now torn in places

with seams gaping open, the dam is empty apart from the ravens that strut

around in it……………….and the main dam………………………

………nothing but a quickly diminishing puddle of muddy water.

July 2009.

I am not aware of there being any

contingency plans being in place to

prevent this problem from becoming a

full scale disaster………and neither do I

know of anyone querying as to why a

public works of this magnitude has been

allowed to lie unused and in this state of

disrepair.

How can state assets of this nature be

allowed to deteriorate like this, and who

will be held responsible?