AfriForum and Freedom Front Plus aid town in water crisis
Many people couldn't make it out to water trucks dispatched by the city, or didn't know where to find them.
Rand Water’s Mapleton booster pumping station experienced a power failure on Friday, halting pumping at the station and leaving a majority of Brakpan without water.
Power was restored to the station on Sunday, but Rand Water warned that it may take up to five days for the water to be restored to all affected areas.
According to the City of Ekurhuleni, the fault was found to be on the Eskom side. The city dispatched water trucks over the weekend to Brakpan, Tsakani, Vosloorus and Daveyton.
Many people could not make it to the dispatched trucks, however, and AfriForum and the Freedom Front Plus dispatched their own water trailers to help those affected in Brakpan.
On Saturday, water from Riaan Marais’ borehole on his Withok plot, which has been tested and found to be safe for consumption, was transported to the Red Cross, Pick ‘n Pay Sherwood Gardens, Hoërskool Die Anker and the Tweedy Park Old Age Home.
On Saturday, 7.5kl was handed out and further efforts on Sunday saw 25kl for the whole weekend being given to the public.
On Sunday the trailer visited Hoërskool Die Anker, Pick ‘n Pay and Tweedy Park again and then moved around handing out water up until 20:00.
Freedom Front Plus PR Clr Riaan van Zyl and AfriForum Brakpan vice chairperson Drummond Doig joined Marais and helped residents fill their containers with water wherever they went.
Residents were extremely frustrated by the interruption in the water supply and the supposed lack of sufficient communication around the water crisis.
Sanet Oosthuizen, a resident who picked up water at Hoërskool Die Anker on Sunday morning, said: “I’m just plain the hell in, forget morbid.
“Now I have to drive out my own petrol, buy water and I still have to pay for water I’m not getting. Who’s going to reimburse me for the water I’m not getting?”
Many residents couldn’t make it to Ekurhuleni water trucks stationed at Pick ‘n Pay Sherwood Gardens and the Anzac Circle, which made the trailer move throughout the town bringing water to the people necessary.
Many people came to the trailer to fill up containers for themselves as well as their neighbours, as many people couldn’t come out to get the water themselves.
Those hit the hardest by the water crisis were residents of Tweedy Park.
Susan Pienaar from Tweedy Park told the Brakpan Herald that when the trailer came around, they got someone to send the partially working lift down so they don’t have to use the stairs, or they got young volunteers to carry the water up the stairs.
Tweedy Park especially struggles with water since the water pump doesn’t work during load shedding. One resident said: “The municipality doesn’t look after the elderly, end of story.
“It’s terrible, really. It’s not really a problem to live here when the lifts and water work, but when the power comes on after load-shedding we have to wait up to half an hour longer for the water to come back.”
Veronica O’Neil, another resident of Tweedy Park, half-jokingly suggested that the municipality builds a pit toilet for them so they don’t have to use their drinking water to flush the toilets during a water crisis.
Amid all the frustration, Tweedy Park residents and the public all expressed gratitude to the Freedom Front Plus and AfriForum for helping the community with water in this time of need.
