Infrastructure at a waste water treatment plant for raw sewerage, currently being dumped into a river, will be upgraded soon.

This is according to the spokesperson of MAP Water, Kelopiloe Mongake, who says they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Bloem Water, which will regulate their working relationship and responsibilities to ensure that this water contamination issue is resolved.

Residents of Alao, a new residential area at Harrismith in the Free State, were devastated as raw sewage was being dumped into the Wilge River. They reported their concerns about water contamination while the country was battling a water crisis.

This follows several pleas to MAP Water in the Maluti-A-Phofung (MAP) municipality to install proper infrastructure. Mongake then told OFM News that there were no funds to execute plans. She further stated that the pump station was not working and Water and Sanitation Minister, Senzo Mchunu, knew their challenges, which is why they allegedly had no other choice but to dump the sewage into the Wilge River.

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Mongake now says Bloem water will assist MAP Water with maintenance and refurbishment of infrastructure.

“At this moment assessments are done by Bloem Water. Procurement of service providers is under way, and work will commence once the service providers have been appointed, which we estimate could be by the end of October 2022. So probably by November they will start working on the waste water treatment plant that is not in operation.”

OFM News previously reported that water and sanitation problems at the Maluti-A-Phofung (MAP) municipality are indirectly due to poor financial management. This was according to the Office of the Auditor-General, Odwa Duda, who said MAP Water had not been submitting financial statements, which affected service delivery as it complicated the allocation of funds.

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He explained that not submitting financial statements in time affects the government's budget allocation to assist MAP Water.

OFM News/Mpho Mohapi