Seven years with little to no water for this Free State town

On a good day in Dewetsdorp just outside Bloemfontein, residents often have about two hours of water supply, but more often than not the community simply goes days without the basic commodity, due to a lack of one important tool – reservoir pumps.

Dewetsdorp is among the small towns including Soutpan, Van Stadensrus and Wepener which were absorbed into the Mangaung metro municipality from the Naledi municipality in 2016. Since then, the towns experienced a water crisis, which impacted Dewetsdorp the most.

This is because the lack of pumps means they are at the mercy of gravity to feed water from the entity Bloem Water’s reservoirs into the municipal reservoirs, which means municipal reservoirs usually only fill up to approximately 15% capacity, said VF Plus MP and member of the National Council of Provinces Adriaan Du Bruyn.

“The pipelines go into the new [municipal] reservoir and the other goes into Bloem Water’s reservoir. From the latter, they are supposed to pump water into the municipal reservoirs but the pumps are now gone. Now, Bloem Water reservoirs supply municipal reservoirs only with gravity feed, but because the reservoirs are not levelled the same, if Bloem Water’s reservoir is filled to 100% capacity, it can only fill the municipal reservoir up to 15%.”

“Because 15% of the municipal reservoirs are filled, the municipality has to close the valves and shut off the water completely to build up the capacity of 15% again which is then opened up to the upper part of town so everyone can get water for two hours. When the reservoirs run dry again, they close the valves again,” Du Bruyn explained.

Residents go days without water

Not having running water has become the norm in the area, as people have found ways of surviving without water.

During The Citizen’s visit, Thapelo Rorisang, a herdsman from Morajaneng township said they hadn’t had water for the past week.

“We just get water from the river over the hill. That is what we are used to doing. It’s unlikely to get running water around here,” he told The Citizen.

While those in the upper part of town have resorted to boreholes, this alternative was often interrupted by power outages, said resident Elzane Bothma.

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“The water goes out about two to four days in a row. Every household has a tank and after two days of no water, those tanks eventually run dry. We also often don’t have electricity, like right now, meaning the pumps can’t pump the water from the boreholes. If that happens, then we go house to house and ask for water,” she said.

For the 300 of the 750 pupils who lived at the hostels of Christiaan De Wet High School this often means going days without take a shower. The children washed in a basin daily to save water, despite the school using their own money to build 400 000 litre tanks to feed on the municipal reservoirs.

Principal Boeta Potgieter said the school had to close early the last term due to the shortage of water for more than a week. Despite the tankers on the property, they often only had enough water for two hours or sometimes half a day, he said.

“We didn’t have water for more than a week. Because there wasn’t water at the hostels, the pupils used the toilets in the school. Even though we have the capacity for them, when the water was no longer available, we had no other option than to close the school. The toilets were getting blocked up. This decision was for hygienic purposes,” he said.

Bloem Water says nothing wrong as Mangaung promises to improve Dewetsdorp

According to Bloem Water, their pump station has been operational in supplying water to its reservoirs and further to those belonging to the Mangaung municipality. These pumps have been monitored by the maintenance team, said Bloem Water executive operations and maintenance head Maruping Rapudungoane.

“The entity’s maintenance team has been monitoring the said pumps and reservoir levels twice a day, to ensure uninterrupted supply to water. Bloem water does not have access to the municipality’s infrastructure. The operations of the outlet’s valves belonging to Mangaung metro municipality at their reservoirs has been a challenge as their team regulates supply to the community and Bloem Water does not have control over that operation,” said Rapudungoane.

The municipality had inherited “under-serviced” infrastructure when they took over the towns from the Naledi municipality, said Mangaung municipality spokesperson Qondile Khedama.

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“The priority has now been given to roads, outstanding pit toilets, allocation of sites, electricity and water in Dewetsdorp. Water has been an issue in the former Naledi local municipality. It has been prioritised on our budget and we will be accelerating the water infrastructure improvements,” said Khedama.

Bloem Water said they were available and willing to support Mangaung to resolve the water crisis, Rapudungoane said.

rorisangk@citizen.co.za