Water woes continue in Sand River

The community of Sand River will still have to wait a little longer before they will get water from the taps that were installed seven years ago.

The City of Mbombela’s spokesperson, Joseph Ngala, indicated that due to the new developments, the municipality has challenges with water storage to supply the area.

“The reality is that services always follow development, and this is a challenge all municipalities are confronted with where rural areas are concerned. The land is in the custody of the traditional authority and there is lack of co-ordination between the parties when it comes to allocation of land for human settlement purposes. In addition, the current reservoir capacity requires upgrading to meet the current demands. This includes the extension of the water reticulation network with individual household connections for Majika and Sand River’s old reservoir supply zone,” said Ngala.

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He also said to get rid of informal connections to ensure that water infrastructure is upgraded both in terms of the bulk distribution pipelines, storage reservoirs and reticulation network, an estimated amount of over a R1b is needed over the next 40 years.

“We have received an appraisal of R700m bulk infrastructure upgrades from the national Department of Water and Sanitation. However, the funding is not yet made available to the municipality to kick-start the implementation process of various interventions within the programme. The master planning projects for the reticulation reinforcement and extension over the next 10 years up to 2034 is estimated at R17m for Sand River and Majika. This is only for the supply zone for the old reservoir where the problem of water supply was reported,” Ngala said.

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He added that areas without formal water networks are supplied by water tankers. He said without proof, water sales by municipal-contracted water tankers remain allegations, as the municipality needs proof to act against those service providers who are alleged to be selling water to the people instead of delivering it for free.

“The areas that we supply water out of tankers are big, and therefore it is a challenge to meet the supply schedule, as the water tankers are shared among various wards,” he said.
Ngala also dismissed allegations that the CoM had installed these taps without any intention to supply water, and said: “The CoM can never install water pipes without any plan to supply the people with water”.
But he did not respond on why, after seven years, the taps were still dry.