The water supply in the Kouga municipality is safe to drink and was not affected by the contamination crisis that recently rocked Nelson Mandela Bay.

The DA’s Tsitsi-Kouga constituency leader, Retief Odendaal, said confirmation on the state of the water in Kouga was given by the metro’s acting executive director for infrastructure and engineering, Joseph Tsatsire.

This after the DA submitted questions to the metro’s acting city manager on February 23. 

Tsatsire confirmed in a written reply that Kouga’s water was safe to drink because the supply came from the Churchill and Impofu dam treatment facilities, and that these complied with SANS241 — which specifies the quality of acceptable drinking water, defined in terms of microbiological, physical, aesthetic and chemical determinants.

The metro has previously indicated that the Grassridge water treatment works was the cause of the water contamination.

Tsatsire said the Grassridge supply zone did not link with the Kouga supply and, therefore, had no effect on the quality of the water provided to Kouga. 

Odendaal said the Kouga municipality remained firmly in the grip of one of the worst droughts on record.

The municipality has spent hundreds of millions of rand on projects augmenting its traditional water supply in a bid to prevent day zero.

The water that the Kouga municipality receives from Nelson Mandela Bay is blended with its own, mostly groundwater sources.

Though groundwater is sometimes of poorer quality, Kouga’s water remains SANS241 compliant and will continue to be monitored by the municipality.

On February 25, the Nelson Mandela Bay metro confirmed its water was safe again for human consumption.

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