Residents frustrated by water shortages

While the problem has been partially solved, there still are residents who have not had water in the last twenty days. During a visit by the Herald, a resident, Suzaan Strijdom, said that the availability of water has been an ongoing problem for a long time due to technical problems with the pipelines. Kampersrus depends on two boreholes for their water. “The boreholes have been a problem for many years. When we report it to the Maruleng Local Municipality (MLM), they arrive to assess the problem with no tools to do repairs.

“They then leave with the promise to fix the problem, but they never do,” she said. Despite the fact that the town has a water-purification plant consisting of two reservoirs for raw and purified water, problems with the pipelines from the dam to the residents and the community of Scotia, have hampered reticulation. She said the problems intensified when MLM started a water sanitation project without proper planning. When they realised they cannot provide water for Kampersrus and Scotia with all the developments going on, MLM decided to replace the two zinc reservoirs and build a concrete dam.”

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She says after they started with the construction they realised they were building on top of their system. According to Strijdom, they did not have the necessary reticulation plans before they started the project. Pieter Gerber of the Freedom Front Plus in Maruleng said that residents are getting more frustrated by the day. “Mopani District Municipality (MDM), the water authority, has repaired only one of the boreholes.” He said because only one of the two boreholes was repaired, it cannot provide water for the whole of Kampersrus. “There are some residents who still have not had water for 20 days, and those who do receive water, have to be quick as it still is not enough,” he said.

Herald contacted MDM spokesperson, Odas Ngobeni, who said that the problem is due to a technical fault. “There is a technical problem with the transformer at one of the two boreholes supplying the community. However, we have been supplying the community through water tankers as we attend to the issue with Eskom,” he said. Herald also asked about the reason for the sanitation project not working. The project was halted by a court interdict, and as such we had to comply with that interdict. At the time of the interdict, 90% of the plant was finished, and 37% of the outflows. “We have revised the designs, and we hope to continue with implementation as we start the new financial year. In short, the project is not finalised and ready for use. The delays were due to the court processes,” added Ngobeni.