A whopping R381-million has been set aside to upgrade the Brits Water Treatment Works (BWTW), which will bring to an end the water shortages that has recently sparked service delivery protests in Majakaneng.

Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) media liaison officer Sputnik Ratau said working together with the struggling Madibeng Local Municipality, the department will address water challenges in Majakaneng through the upgrade of the BWTW, which also supplies the Majakaneng area.

He said the upgrade of the BWTW includes the replacement of sand filters which was completed in July 2014 by Magalies Water. Ratau said the works will ensure that the BWTW has an additional production capacity of 20Ml/d. 

“To date, work at the BWTW has started with civil works (Phase 1) which will be implemented by DWS Construction Unit as contractors and two Professional Service Providers (PSPs) have been appointed for electrical and mechanical works.

“The Phase 1 of the BWTW is envisaged to be completed by August 2015 and Phase 2 which includes mechanical and electrical will follow thereafter, while the entire upgrade of the BWTW is envisaged to be completed by the 2017/18 financial year,” he said.

However, in the short-term, he said the department allocated R1.1-million to the Madibeng Local Municipality to address the water challenges in Majakaneng which are mainly attributed to vandalism and leakages in the water supply system which makes the whole Majakaneng reticulation and delivery points to have major water leakages.

Due to the vandalism and leakages, people in Majakaneng are struggling to get water in a normal way.

“Through the R1.1-million we allocated to the municipality, these challenges will be addressed to ensure that there is continuous delivery of water for the whole community of Majakaneng.    

“The Madibeng Local Municipality is currently embarking on a leak detection exercise and filling of the reservoirs and will soon commence with distribution of water in order to identify and repair visible leaks.

“This exercise will require isolation of certain sections of Majakaneng and therefore it is expected that not all the sections will have water,” he said.

Ratau said together with the local municipality, they will continue to work together with the current limited financial resources to deal with the existing water leakages which caused the water pressure in Majakaneng to be very low and as a result some areas experienced water shortages.

Meanwhile, on Monday morning, angry protesting residents of Majakaneng near Mooinooi, in the North West, barricaded the Old Rustenburg road with burning tyres and also burnt a bus.

The anger is alleged to have been fuelled by the poor supply of both electricity and water in their area.