Eskom and load shedding leaves boreholes dry in Limpopo

The impact of load shedding has left over 800 boreholes dry in Limpopo’s Mopani District Municipality.

While many of these borehole are dysfunctional due to a number of factors such as theft and vandalism, more than 170 are still waiting to be energised by Eskom.

Dry boreholes

The dry boreholes are scattered in the district’s five local municipalities. In the Mopani district, the dysfunctional boreholes were drilled at a cost of around R600 000 in order to lessen the impact of the current drought. The region was declared a disaster area in 2009. 

The number of boreholes in Mopani District Municipality:

• 23 in the Ba-Phalaborwa local municipality;
• 161 in Giyani;
• 85 in Letaba;
• 50 in Maruleng; and
• 508 in Tzaneen.

The number of boreholes waiting to be energised by Eskom:

• 17 in Ba-Phalaborwa;
• 30 in Giyani;
• 46 in Letaba;
• 4 in Maruleng; and
• 74 in Tzaneen.

Many of the boreholes in Limpopo are not functioning because of load shedding.

Speaking on Monday at the Mining Indaba in Cape Town, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said the South African economy was losing about R1 billion a day due to load shedding. He said the country’s Energy Availability Factor (EAF) had dropped from an estimated 75% to 49%.

He said focused, funded and planned maintenance of existing power stations is needed to resolve load shedding.

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On Tuesday, the Mopani District Municipality praised Mantashe’s words.

“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. 

Boreholes without water

Ngobeni said the number of boreholes in Mopani should mean water scarcity is no longer a problem in the region. 

“We currently have 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.

According to Ngobeni, some of the boreholes have had been lying there for more than five years without producing any drop of water. 

Load shedding making problem worse

He said plans were afoot with Eskom to energise them.

“But each time, load shedding always happens, resulting into communities going thirsty for years. 

“The impact is so huge,” he said.

Ngobeni said boreholes with a low yield are worst affected, but the bigger water treatment plants are also being affected. 

“To mitigate this impact, we use thousands of litres of diesel to run the backup generators every day. It obviously comes at a high cost and is just not sustainable.

He said water treatment plants should be exempt from load shedding.

“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,” he said. 

Community takes matters into their own hands

Phillip Machubeni, a father of five from Morutji Village in Bolobedu near Khethakone, has taken matters into his own hands. With the help of his wife and children, Machubeni connected a pipe to a well below the Khemarela Mountain. He harvests rain water from this. 

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 day-to-day household needs. 

The situation highlights the chronic shortage of water in the area due to the dysfunctional boreholes.

Other people in the province blamed government for failing to complete the Giyani bulk water project which has been stalled for more than nine years. The project started in August 2014 and was earmarked to be completed by 2018. Its initial R502 million budget has ballooned to R4.5 billion.

Last week Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu also blamed load shedding for water shortages in municipalities. Mchunu said load shedding was negatively affecting the supply of water and sanitation in all municipalities in the country.

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