BCM officials responded yesterday to a series of complaints from residents about the poor quality of their tap water in recent weeks.
As previously reported by the Daily Dispatch (“Residents complain of odour, strange tast in BCM water”, November 03), a number of residents noted that their tap water had a “funny” taste, along with a bad odour.
In a statement posted to their Facebook page on Tuesday, BCM said that their initial investigation showed that an algal bloom in the Bridle Drift Dam was responsible.
“On 2 November, our laboratory requested the BCMM Water Department to submit samples of raw and final treated water to Umgeni Laboratory for analysis,” the municipality said.
The municipality said that the problem is being addressed by increasing the dose of activated carban at the Umzonyana water treatment plant.
Water quality will also be monitored every week to check for potential microbiological issues.
The problems with the tap water followed soon after a similar incident at Nahoon Beach, where a similarly fould stench was found at the mouth of the Ihlanza River (also known as the “Turdy River”) along with plenty of dead fish.
BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said at the time that they were investigating a possible sewerage leak.
