Farmers to the rescue during Hazyview water crisis
Farmers around town did not hesitate to come to the residents' aid during a water supply failure when the City of Mbombela ended up in an unforeseen predicament.
“Without the help of these farmers, the water crisis would have been a total disaster. The town would like to thank them for their huge contribution towards assisting it in its crisis,” said Cllr Ken Robertson of the FF Plus.
A farmer-owned irrigation canal that runs through Hazyview, now only used for watering the farmers’ fields and crops, had always supplied the town with bulk water and, according to Robertson, the CoM had relinquished its water rights to this canal when it built a raw water pump station on the Sabie River to draw water for the town, bypassing the need for the farmers’ water.
It was reported 15 months ago that the backup water pump for the Sabie River had broken, which Robertson said was only seen by the municipality as a serious issue when the main pump broke in early March and left the town without a single drop of water.
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The municipality’s first act to solve the problem was to order water trucks to collect water from neighbouring pump stations in Marite, Chochocho and Nyongane, which had no water to supply, either. The communities in those areas protested, saying that whatever water they had hardly supplied their own demand, and they stopped the trucks from collecting any water.
Residents approached the farmers’ canal board to ask for water to be released to the town as it once had done. This could not have been done without these farmers forfeiting their water for days on end so that the town could be helped.
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“Eventually it was agreed upon and water was allowed through, which quickly made the world of difference to Hazyview residents,” said Robertson. “Farmers need to be respected, like Nico Bronkhorst, who was incredible in this crisis. Their unseen contributions come at times when they could turn their backs on society, and if they did as with this case, would have caused a disaster that would also had required major intervention to undo.”
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