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North West municipality’s years-old water woes blamed on blackouts
While the municipality blames load shedding for the years-old issues, President Ramaphosa last year admitted the council has a corruption problem.
Supplied picture of Koster residents attempting to fix overhead electricity cables.
The water issues in the Kgetlengrivier Local Municipality in the North West is gravitating towards a collapsed state, according to public interest organisation Sakeliga.
Some of the areas falling under the troubled municipality that have been affected by water and sewer challenges, include Koster, Swartruggens as well as Derby.
Sakeliga obtained an order from the North West Division of the High Court in Mahikeng in February 2021, against the municipality’s manager, compelling the municipality to comply with a request for records that were submitted as long as December 2020 – in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA).
More legal action planned against Kgetlengrivier
Commenting further on the issues at Kgetlengrivier, Sakeliga’s legal officer, Tian Alberts, said they are now also preparing to again take the municipality to court on 23 March.
“With this court action, we want to compel national Government to intervene in the water crisis in Kgetlengrivier and we are also seeking a special paymaster who will be able to manage critical aspects of the municipality’s financial administration to ensure service delivery,” said Alberts.
He said the situation there is also being worsened by unplanned electricity cuts over and above load shedding.
“The infrastructure is in a state of decay with children in several schools not having access to clean drinking water,” Alberts said.
Sakeliga has in the past also intervened in other municipalities of the troubled North West, with similar service delivery problems.
One such municipality is the embattled Ditsobotla, which has been described as a humanitarian and constitutional crisis.
ALSO READ: Ditsobotla municipality: ‘A humanitarian, constitutional crisis’ – Sakeliga
Many municipalities in the North West have for the longest time been experiencing serious service delivery challenges, threatening the existence of several businesses.
One big company, a cheese and milk factory – Clover SA could no longer cope with the poor state of service delivery and decided to relocate from Lichtenburg to KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).
ALSO READ: North West Premier intervenes in Clover factory closure in bid to save hundreds of jobs
Corruption an impediment to service delivery – Cyril Ramaphosa
During the Human Rights Day celebrations held in the municipality last year, President Cyril Ramaphosa berated local authorities over the worrying situation there, saying corruption was one of the impediments to people not getting decent drinking water and proper sanitation.
Watch President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 2022 #HumanRightsDay speech
Kgetlengrivier residents bemoan water challenges
Meanwhile, several residents who spoke to The Citizen said the water situation started becoming worse when they handed over the administration of key services back to the municipality.
One of the residents, Willie Jones, says since the concerned residents returned the water and sewage plants in April 2021 back to the municipality, service delivery became worse than it was in the previous year.
Another resident, Wilhelm Rocher, said there are times when there is no water, mainly due to load shedding.
“There is indeed a generator but there is not always fuel for the generator and it also sometimes happens that there is brown water, but this is because of water that cannot be pumped with load shedding, as the chemicals do not have enough time to do their work.
“The water treatment plant was refurbished last year, and handed over to the municipality in working condition. But everything is now no longer in working order because of municipal workers who do not carry out their assignments correctly,” Rocher added.
Koster resident Carel van Heerden says they have been experiencing water supply problems since 2012.
“We only receive water in the morning for two hours, and then another two hours in the afternoon and the sewer plant is also not working.
“We are currently busy with court papers in a bid to get the water works back and I must say the water problem is now worse than it was before,” said Van Heerden.
Apart from the water concerns, residents say they have also been forced to fix things such as falling electricity poles and underground water pipes themselves.
In May of last year, residents were forced to assist firefighters to fill up a fire engine in a bid to extinguish a building that caught fire in Koster.
Watch Koster residents assisting the firefighters
Magalies Water denies crisis in Kgetlengrivier
Responding to concerns raised by local residents, spokesperson for Magalies Water – David Magae said the water challenges at Kgetlengrivier, predate the appointment of Magalies Water, as an implementing agent responsible for bulk water supply and bulk sanitation services.
Magalies Water was appointed as an agent for operations and maintenance of water and waste water treatment plants to ensure the sustainability of water provision to the community.
“It is not correct, to agree to statements or notions that there is water crisis in the Kgetlengrivier Local Municipality without taking into account the current load shedding, which continues to affect adversely operations.
“Ordinarily, in the instance there is load shedding, resumption of bulk water supply is likely to delay unlike electricity, which is instantaneous, water treatment plants are not able to produce potable water when there has been an interruption in operations,” Magae said.
Magae said their water quality results are audited by the Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) to validate all the information they submit regularly.
“All of the plants, which have been handed over to Magalies Water, continue to operate optimally and recently during a site visit to Kgetlengrivier, all of the four plants were seen to be operating and performing very well,” said Magae.
Kgetlengrivier municipality blames water challenges on load shedding and cable theft
Meanwhile, spokesperson for the local municipality Sannah Magakgala echoed Magae’s sentiments, saying various communities are receiving water and that no complaints have been registered with their customer care unit.
Magakgala said due to the effects of the continuous load shedding experienced throughout the country, the Kgetlengrivier water treatment plants and infrastructure have been severely affected.
“In the interim, the municipality has implemented alternative means of providing water to residents through water tankering during the breakdowns.
“What has compounded the problem is the alarming rate of cable theft and damaged substations as a result of load shedding,” Magakgala added.
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