Two months without a drop in the City of Gold

They may live within Africa’s richest city, just a stone’s throw away from Johannesburg’s affluent northern suburbs, but somehow a nursery school tucked away in an informal settlement behind Cosmo City has had to make do without a drop of running water for the past two months.

Since its establishment in the Itsoseng Informal Settlement (Eskom) located in the far northern part of Johannesburg in 2001, the Little Roses Children Centre had battled with inconsistent supply of water – with the settlement often having no running water for months at a time.

An emotional principal, Rosemary Moila, said from the beginning she had been forced to hire people with wheelbarrows to ferry water to the mursery, as the only working taps were located a distance away, where water pumps had been installed.

“It was nice then because we had running water! Not these ones from the “zozo” tank where there are dead rats, used condoms, pests and other things. That’s why we get sick. Now we counted 89 taps in the community. but only one of them has running water. The rest of them are dry!”

To prove it, she led The Citizen to one of the dry taps collecting dust just a few meters away from her nursery. She said it had been that way for the past two months and that water would only run out of the rest of the settlement’s taps at odd hours of the night when it was dangerous to step out.

“How are we supposed to know when water is running? Last night I was up at 3AM so I could see if water would run but nothing! Our place (informal settlement) is dangerous to go out at night. What if I get raped or I get killed by a stranger?
“We have to hire a bakkie every day to supply us with water from the only running taps near the RDP (Reconstruction and Development Programme) houses because we need water to run the centre. We have 79 children and they need water to use the toilet, to wash their hands consistently, to cook, to wash clothes, and for the children to drink. It is not healthy for our children, we are struggling!”
An early childhood development practitioner working in the centre who chose to remain anonymous said they had been experiencing problems on a daily basis since she started working, forcing her to keep two full bottles of water in the classroom, just in case the children wanted to quench their thirst.
She said “we are hoping the government will come up with solutions or alternative ways for us to collect water, because the expense of having to hire a bakkie is financially draining the centre”.

Although Moila claimed they had not heard a word from their ward municipal councillor Mapula Rosinah Mosito since their water woes spanning the past eight weeks began, The Citizen managed to get a hold of her.

“I am aware (of the water problem) and we have handed the problem to Joburg Water to investigate the matter. The investigation started in the beginning of this month (February) with the city’s regional C manager Gert Jacob, (however) I have not heard an update yet. In the meantime, we have a water tanks from Joburg Water that supplies water to the settlement at least once a day and twice to refill depending on whether the tanks are empty,” said Mosito.

Disheartened community member and chairperson of the Itsoseng men’s committee Patrick Makana led The Citizen team to the only permanently working tap in the community, about a twenty-minute walk from the children’s centre.

Little Rose’s Nursery Pre – School Principal Rosemary Moila pours water into the toilet cistern. Picture: Nigel Sibanda

The tap stands on the edge of an RDP complex and just in front of the widely stretched Itsoseng informal settlement.

“There’s always people queuing here,” he pointed to the tap where a man was filling his two buckets with water. Another man waited patiently for his turn.

Just steps away from the tap is a young woman, Elen Sithole, who is hard at work washing her clothes under the excruciatingly sun. With her is her toddler who is holding onto the rims of the buckets playfully for support, giggling after every slip.

Assisting the woman to fill her washing bucket with clean water to rinse, Makana says “even the construction workers come here to collect water because there’s no other running tap anywhere else in the area.”

“This has been going on since 2000 when we first moved here. Water is a big problem in this community, we can go months without water. We have complained to the councillor and we have been expecting developments but nothing has happened. No one is clear to us about what is going to happen so we can live like other townships!”

jenniffero@citizen.co.za

Video by : Pfarelo Munonoka

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