Women wash clothes and even food in water from a farm dam. Photos: Tladi Moloi
- Households in Maluti-a-Phofung municipality struggle to access water on a daily basis.
- Residents report that no water is coming out of the taps in their gardens.
- Some go to a nearby pig farm to wash clothes and food in the water from the farm dam. Others fetch water in wheelbarrows from a gas station.
- The city says the problem is a pumping station that was vandalized, but the families say the water supply problems go back years.
Families in the eastern Free State share water with pigs as they wait for the Maluti-a-Phofung Municipality to repair the water supply, which has been out of order for years.
Some say the problem dates back to 2010. The affected areas are Pereng, Ditading, Bagdat, Kgabisi and part of Tebang. According to the ward councillor, about 2,000 households have been affected. Residents say that some days when they wake up, there are a few drops of water coming out of the taps in their gardens; other days there is no water at all.
According to the municipality, the water problem is the result of vandalism at the Pereng pumping station.
During GroundUp’s visit to the area, some people were washing clothes at the dam on a nearby pig farm, while others were washing meat and vegetables.
They said they had lost hope that the municipality would ever resolve this.
To drink, they boil the water from the dam or walk two kilometers to a gas station. Residents can be seen daily with wheelbarrows full of containers along the road.
Some residents fetch water with wheelbarrows from a gas station two kilometers away.
Ward councillor Hlabathe Dlamini (ANC) confirmed that they had been having a water problem for years. He said that he had spoken to Maluti-a-Phofung Water (MAP Water) several times, but without success.
“I was a member of the ward committee in 2011 and since then the community has had the same problem. I remember that we were told that the problem was that the demand in that area was high and the reservoir could not supply everyone. Then the reservoir was addressed and we thought everything would be fine, but nothing,” he said.
Dlamini said they were now told the problem was at the pumping station.
Kelopiloe Mongake, spokesperson for MAP Water, said the municipality was repairing the destroyed pumping station in Pereng.
“Yes, we are in the process of repairing that pumping station and we want to plead with the community to maintain the infrastructure. We have been supplying water tankers to people for so long,” she said.
But Dlamini said the water trucks were not bringing enough water and sometimes a week would go by without anyone seeing a truck.
Rea Mokoena, from Bagdat, said families sometimes bought water from people driving around selling water for R5 to R10 a litre. But the water was dirty. “We don’t even know where they get it from. If you look at our water buckets after you use the water from the trucks, you will find mud at the bottom,” she said.
“We want water from our taps.”
“Once we take to the streets, block roads with stones and burn tires, they will do something because that is the only language our government understands,” she said.
Mongake denied that the area had been without water for more than a decade. “No. That’s not true. They’re exaggerating.” She acknowledged that there had been problems in the past with the Makwane plant that pumps water from the Metsi Matsho dam to Pereng and other pumping stations. That was due to power outages, she said.
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