Almost three months after repeated interruption in water supply to the town of Alldays, ongoing court processes and securing Police intervention as well as undertakings for additional infrastructure by Capricorn District Municipality (CDM), the community of Alldays is still battling with access to a commodity that, to them, is worth its weight in gold.
The problem dates back to October last year when infrastructure in Ga-Makgatho village in the Kromhoek area was allegedly vandalised for the first time forcing a community on its knees.
CDM at that time embarked on a course of action to reinstate water supply to Alldays, it was learnt. This entailed discussions with Makgatho tribal authority and the community, authorising repairs to infrastructure that later had to be done under protection of security guards, opposing a court interdict by the traditional authority preventing the municipality access to the area, committing millions towards repairs and a pipeline linking both the village and town to the same water source, supplying water by tanker to the people of Alldays in terms of a temporary arrangement and ensuring the enforcement of a counter interdict restricting any person from preventing the institution from delivering services, explained CDM Executive Mayor John Mpe in sketching the background to the matter.
Referring to pure acts of criminality impacting on the lives of the people of Alldays, Mpe attributed repeated actions of vandalism preventing the supply of water to the town to the conduct of individuals with political aspirations hijacking the traditional authority to fight their battles. According to Mpe he was informed that the reason for the action was based on the community being discontent with the ward councillor in their area, the election of ward committee members and their water supply not being reliable. In the meantime CDM was attempting to bring stability to the area and stop the suffering of the people of Alldays, he assured.
Mpe condemned the barbaric acts preventing CDM from delivering services and denying others access to water as well as the fact that the culprits have not been promptly arrested. He raised concern about millions being spent on stabilising the situation while it should have been spent elsewhere.
During a visit to the town this past weekend numerous residents expressed dismay with a waterless existence, a crisis in which those fortunate to have free access to water don’t feel the brunt as much as the rest.
A business owner in town explained that she delivered water in 25 litre containers, which got filled up on the farm where she resided, for her staff for purposes of domestic use to their homes almost daily while water supplies simultaneously had to be off-loaded at the business. The manager of the same business referred to limited assistance from the local municipality at a time when the community was suffering greatly. He maintained that he did not know what he would have done without the water provided by the business owner. He expressed concern about children in Speaker Park where he resided having to fetch water from tanks in the area while having to study after school.
An operator at an informal car wash in Alldays pointed at containers filled with water that were secured behind lock and key at a facility a distance away to ensure they did not run out of the resource to keep business going. The weekly consignment was obtained from a source outside town for which they had to hire a delivery vehicle at R150 per weekly trip to collect water at R20 per load, he said. He, too, added his voice to that of other townsfolk when expressing the sentiment that they were suffering without water.
The situation in adjacent Speaker Park spelt despair and great inconvenience to residents who don’t have easy access to the resource. Women and kids pushing wheelbarrows with containers along the main road, en route to Mapungubwe, are a common sight. As water apparently gets delivered by tanker once a week it moves desperate residents of Speaker Park to daily put out containers in queue below empty storage tanks in the hope that help would arrive. Taps connected to the tanks are evidently secured with padlocks. Storage tanks, containers and buckets in the garden are the order of the day in a neighbourhood where outside taps usually supply dwellers with the necessary resource for domestic use under normal circumstances when water supply is not interrupted. Here the occasional washing machine witnessed in dusty front yards after Friday evening’s downpour ensured laundry got done with rain water, instead of precious water to be used for human consumption.
A woman encountered in the vicinity of a tank at Madiba Sports Complex, a distance away from her house along the main road, explained how she collected water for domestic use with a wheelbarrow three times a day.
Elsewhere in the same settlement a young man conceded that at this stage the water in a container he was carrying home was more valuable than gold.
Story & photos: YOLANDE NEL
>>observer.yolande@gmail.com
Featured photo: A young member of the community with empty containers waiting in queue in Speaker Park adjacent to Alldays.
