TINTED WATER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 September 1938, Page 5

TINTED WATER

IMPROVING CAPE TOWN’S SUPPLY. FILTRATION PLANT BEING INSTALLED. CAPE TOWN, August 10. Within a month one-third of Cape Town will be supplied with white water. Hitherto the Cape Town municipal water supply has been light brown in colour —almost exactly the shade of weak whisky and water —owing to discolouration by decayed vegetable matter in the streams and reservoirs from which the water is drawn. A filtration plant has been built to clarify all the water —supplying about a third of the municipality—from Table Mountain, and it will be in operation shortly. The council will then begin immediately with the erection of a plant to filter the water from Steenbras, in the Hottentots Holland Mountains, 36 miles away, from which the city’s major supply is drawn. Filtration was vigorously opposed, when first projected, by conservative water drinkers who had grown fond of Cape Town’s tinted water. It seemed to be a waste of money to pander to fastidious people who wanted crystal-clear water. .It appeared, however that even aftei’ interest and redemption costs on the filtration plants are taken into account, clear water will save the city at least £29,000 a year. The brown water is slightly acid, and rapidly corrodes iron and steel pipes. Moreover the vegetable matter in suspension tends to settle in the mains as a black sluge, making frequent scraping and replacements necessary.