Load shedding to blame for dry boreholes in Limpopo municipality

The impact of load shedding has left over 800 boreholes without producing a single drop of water in poor rural Mopani district municipality.

Most of these boreholes are dysfunctional due to factors such as theft of equipment and vandalism, while over 170 of them have been waiting to be energised by Eskom.

The dry boreholes are scattered in the district’s five local municipalities.

Affected municipalities

Mopani’s dysfunctional boreholes were drilled at a cost not exceeding R600 000 in order to mitigate the existing drought. The region was declared a disaster area in 2009.

There are 23 boreholes in the Ba-Phalaborwa local municipality, 161 in Giyani, 85 in Letaba, 50 in Maruleng and 508 in Tzaneen.

Those waiting to be energised by Eskom are 17 in Ba-Phalaborwa, 30 in Giyani, 46 in Letaba, four in Maruleng and 74 in Tzaneen.

ALSO READ: Limpopo municipality fails 18th audit in a row

‘Load shedding happens’

“It is all hands on deck here. We are doing our all to bring water to these communities. But each time we try, load shedding happens,” municipal spokesperson Odas Ngobeni said yesterday.

He said if the number of borehole in Mopani was anything to go by, water scarcity would be a thing of the past in the region.

“We are currently having a total of 1 726 boreholes in the district. Of the total, 827 of them are not operational. Worse, 171 of those are still waiting to be energised by Eskom and this has been going on for ages,” he said.

Boreholes haven’t worked for five years

According to Ngobeni, some of the boreholes were dug more than five years ago but have not produced water.

He said plans were afoot with Eskom to energise them. “We also feel the effect of load shedding on our bigger water treatment plants.

To mitigate this impact, we use thousands of litres in diesel to run the backup generators everyday. It obviously comes at a high cost and just not sustainable, he added.

“Water is a basic human need and that is why we are going to resuscitate our engagement with Eskom with a view of persuading them to exempt our water treatment plants from load shedding.”

Affected community member

Phillip Machubeni of Morutji village in Bolobedu is a married unemployed father of five, living at the foot of Khemarela Mountain across the Khetone/Kgwekgwe mountain range.

Machubeni connected a waterpipe from a well just below the mountain where he harvests rain water. The family connected the pipe to a JoJo tank which they use to store the water.

Now, every family around the village depends on this water tank for their everyday household needs. The situation highlights the chronic shortage of water in the area due to boreholes that remained dysfunctional for years.

Machubeni pleaded with the Modjadji royal family, known for their rain-making powers, to bring rain to Limpopo. He said if boreholes were dysfunctional, maybe the Modjadji royal family’s rain-making powers would come in handy during load shedding.

Controversial Giyani Bulk Water project

Other people in the province blamed the government for failing to complete the multibillion Giyani Bulk Water project.

The project commenced in August 2014 with a budget of R502 million and was earmarked to be complete by 2018. The budget has since been ballooned to R4.5 billion.

READ MORE: Giyani Bulk Water Project: ActionSA threatens legal action against government