TEKWANE NORTH – There’s one thing that I fail to fathom about living in this area, and that is paying for water that we hardly ever receive.
This comes amid the ongoing supply cuts, only to be restored later in the evening. Upon inquiring, my neighbours told me that this had been the norm since they came to live in the area a few years back, with water being cut off in the morning and restored in the evening.
Then this question came to mind. Why do we have to pay for services that we don’t even receive and how is one suppose to survive without water?
Sembcorp Silumanzi’s spokesman, Mr Richmond Jele, said that the reason it was being cut off in the area, was to enable the reservoir to fill up.
He added that as a result, the problem would persist because the reservoir wouldn’t be filled due to the illegal connections, with water being diverted to individual households. As a result the amount of water that is needed to fill the reservoir decreases.
This was after this journalist was taken on a tour of Emoyeni and Pienaar where illegal connections had been made.
Jele added that they always tried to fix these, but some residents continued to connect their pipes illegally, just after the officials had left the area.
In the past Mbombela Municipality, including other parts of the province, had been plagued by service delivery protests due to the lack of water in some communities.
This resulted in the provincial government appointing Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency (Mega) to provide support to municipalities with regard to bulk water and sanitation.
The premier, Mr David Mabuza, had also taken it upon himself to embark on a fact-finding tour of areas with shortages, which saw him threatening to axe mayors, councillors and municipal officials if they failed to deliver to people.
Speaking to this publication, Mbombela Municipality’s spokesperson, Mr Joseph Ngala said that bulk-water projects were being rolled out with the assistance of Mega, throughout municipalities in the area.
This comes at the time of an inquiry into the latest developments regarding provision in communities that are in need of water.
