Hospital taps dry, piling on infection risk – Amathole municipality’s service delivery and water droughts

The recent strike by employees of the Amathole District Municipality in the Eastern Cape has had a serious impact on service delivery.

The impact was particularly felt by the provincial department of health.

Speaking to The Citizen, spokesperson for the department Siyanda Manana said the situation came to a point where toilets were unable to flush.

“Other problems we encountered ranged from our hospital staff not being able to cook on time, the sterilisation of equipment as well as the washing of hands to ensure infection control,” Manana said.

Speaking on behalf of the employees who were on strike, Luzuko Yalezo from the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) said they only suspended their strike action following their previous meeting where the employer presented a wage offer of 6.25%.

“On Wednesday the 24th there’s another meeting which we hope it will finalise things but if that meeting has no positive results and there’s no implementation of 6.25% on payday (August 25) then workers will be left with no choice but to go back on the strike action,” Yalezo warned.

Yalezo said employees haven’t received salary increases since 2020, hence they decided to embark on industrial action.

In recent days, MEC for the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Xolile Nqatha, condemned the violent unprotected strike by the municipality staff.

The department also blamed some of its striking employees for the recent water crisis.

ALSO READ: MEC Xolile Nqatha condemns unprotected strike by Amathole Municipality workers

When approached for comment, the district municipality’s spokesperson Nonceba Madikizela-Vuso said as far as they are concerned, the strike is over.

With the district municipality having been declared drought-stricken since 2014, Madikizela-Vuso said another challenge they are faced with is that of infrastructure vandalism.

“This denies communities access to water and wastes state resources as we have to divert funding to fix vandalised infrastructure.

“We urge communities to guard water infrastructure and report perpetrators to local authorities and to also report illegal water connections to our pipeline as it damages our infrastructure and causes leaks,” she urged.

Madikizela-Vuso said while the taps have not run dry yet, the district remains a drought stricken area prone to Day Zero.

“Some of our dams are below 40% meaning should there be no sufficient rain, rationing will be imminent to stretch the limited supply as much as possible to avoid taps running completely dry.

“The district municipality has short, medium to long term solutions for water provision across the district and they include drilling and equipping of boreholes across the district,” she said.

The municipality declared the district declared a drought in the area in 2019 despite allocating millions to upgrade water treatment works.

ALSO READ: Amathole district’s drought declaration is a plea for help

Long term plans

In an attempt to provide relief to approximately 30 000 households in the Raymond Mhlaba area, the Foxwood Dam, which was gazetted at R2.5 billion by the national department of Water and Sanitation, will have to be constructed according to Madikizela-Vuso.

For Amahlathi and Ngqushwa, the upgrading of Water Treatment Works(WTW) and the construction of the pipeline from Sandile Dam to Peddie, estimated at R1.5 billion, will have to be done. Approximately 75 000 people will gain access to clean water in a more sustainable manner.

For the Great Kei, the Kei Road WTW and bulk pipeline will have to be extended at an estimated cost of R1.1 billion, to provide relief to approximately 40 000 people.

“For Mnquma, through the district municipality, continued stakeholder engagements and resource mobilisation, an amount of R724 million has recently been secured from DWS and implementation of the Ngqamakhwe Regional Water Supply Scheme project is underway, a project which will benefit approximately 78 534 people in Ngqamakhwe and 44 000 people in Butterworth and surrounding areas,” Madikizela-Vuso said.