Army lends a hand in drought stricken Smithfield

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Pretoria - The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is helping with the delivery of water in the southern Free State town of Smithfield, which is affected by drought.

The army was requested by the local municipality to help via its disaster management structures. An operation was introduced to supply water to the municipal water works and it has been doing so since Saturday.

The water is not supplied directly to the citizens of Smithfield but to the water purification works, as agreed by the SANDF and the local municipality, the SANDF said on Monday.

“Since Saturday morning, a total of 400 000 litres of water have been supplied to the local municipality water works.

“This water was transported from two different water sources and off loaded directly in the purification system of the town,” the SANDF said.

The SANDF will continue with this operation until 30 November 2015 and it is expected that a total of 300 000 litres of water will be delivered on a daily basis to the community.

To date, four provinces - KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, North West and Limpopo have declared drought as a disaster, with Mpumalanga at an advanced stage of preparation for the declaration of drought as a disaster, which will be completed soon. – SAnews.gov.za