This is ridiculous!

Dry taps, dirty babies and stinking toilets … These are the results of the municipality’s inability to deliver a consistent water supply to Makhado (Louis Trichardt).

Add to this residents’ extra expenditure to buy drinking water, put up a tank or sink a borehole (if you can afford it), pay extra for electricity to pump water, and still receive a municipal account for water, then it comes as no surprise that residents are up in arms.

AfriForum attorney Werner Human said on Tuesday that he was awaiting final confirmation from the Vhembe District Municipality (VDM), the town’s water authority, for a date to meet their lawyers. “Their lawyers indicated that they are available this Friday, Monday and Tuesday. We will go through the court order, point by point. If the negotiations fail and there is a legal basis, the court will be approached again,” said Human and mentioned that the town’s water crisis had flared up again in a unique way when AfriForum discovered why a brand new pump was giving trouble and the plant had to be cleaned.

This resulted in the recent spate of continuous waterless taps, which has been dragging on for more than seven days in some parts of town. People are really suffering without water.

Ms Chantel Fogwell has a five-year-old toddler and a baby of four months to keep clean and do her washing, without water. A 33-year-old woman of Vorster Street said that the water situation was driving her up the wall. “The worst is that you cannot bath. We have to beg for water, but people don’t want to help anymore, because their electricity bill goes sky high with all the extra pumping of water. Yet, we got a water account of R800 last month. This is ridiculous!” she said. Ms Maria Venter (82) has no water tank and her grandchildren have to deliver water to her, which is a mammoth task since they themselves do not have tanks.

Residents are furious. “These people [municipal officials] are not serious about delivering water services. There is no maintenance plan. The people are very nice, but they are hopeless at their jobs. It is not right that the community gets no water and this is becoming ‘normal’ for them. I am not going to accept it, which is why I am leaving this town,” said Mr Lampie Schoeman.

On Sunday (17th), five water trucks were made available to bring relief to the residents, but alas, not one of the tankers had a drop of water in them. “I phoned VDM’s manager and asked if we should deliver air to the suffering people. Has their technical services director made no plans for water delivery?” asked Mr Wally Schultz, chairperson of AfriForum Louis Trichardt.

VDM's municipal manager, Mr Masala Makumule, said that it was “confusing” for him to hear from the Zoutpansberger about residents’ feedback that the town had no water.  According to his understanding, the Albasini water plant should have been shut down only for the weekend for cleaning.

AfriForum revealed the state of dysfunction of the Albasini water treatment plant three weeks ago after a series of visits. “The operator told us that the technical services manager, Mr Walter Madimutsa, had been there the day before us. Why didn’t he look around properly and discover what was wrong at the plant?” asked Schultz.

Engineer Duncan Campbell, deputy chairperson of the local AfriForum branch, compiled a comprehensive report and highlighted the items that require “immediate repair to prevent reduction in water supply and further contamination.” Campbell also provided a plan by which the work could be carried out in a staggered way to ensure that at least one of the phases was working, so that the water supply was not shut down as a whole.

Much to AfriForum’s surprise, and contrary to their advice, the plant was shut down completely. As a “quick fix”, water was opened directly into the system early on Monday morning with the envisaged result that the new part of town, Makhado Park and Eltivillas would have water.  On Monday evening, the water at Mowkop reservoir would be redirected to the Bergh Street reservoir, so that the old part of town could also have some water.

The message communicated, however, was that the town would have water on Monday. “I told Vhembe to say what they mean when they communicate and do what they say. There is now no alternative to reverting to the legal route,” Schultz said.

“The work is being done thoroughly. The plant has been shut down, but with good cause. AfriForum’s advice has not been neglected, it has just not been tested. The operators told me that the two systems (the two phases) are linked, so you cannot shut down the one system only without closing the pump," said Makumule on Monday.

“How can they say that they cannot close one system or phase without closing the pump? That’s what they have been doing before. They were working on just one system,” said Schultz, who transported water in containers in his bakkie when Vhembe could not fill up their tankers on Sunday. On Tuesday, water tankers delivered water in the old part of town (west of the N1).

Date:22 November 2013

By: Linda van der Westhuizen

Linda van der Westhuizen has been with Zoutnet since 2001. She has a heart for God, people and their stories. Linda believes that every person is unique and has a special story to tell. It follows logically that human interest stories is her speciality. Linda finds working with people and their leaders in the economic, educational, spiritual and political arena very rewarding. “I have a special interest in what God is doing in our town, province and nation and what He wants us to become,” says Linda.

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