Most residents staying in towns such as Carletonville, Fochville, Khutsong, Kokosi and Wedela are still stuck without water at their homes.

The high-lying area of Fochville has been the worst hit as they have been without water since the middle of last week.

“This is a disaster. We have been trying to get extra water for the old-age home as they are some of the people who are the worst hit in this crisis. What frustrates us the most is that the municipality is not providing answers on why this is happening and what they are doing to try to solve it,” says a ward councillor from Fochville, Lindy Maritz.

The problems spread to Carletonville and other towns over the weekend, and ratepayers, especially, are furious because they have to struggle along without water at their houses.

Although the Merafong City Local Municipality has deployed water trucks to some of the affected areas, this is not enough. Old people or those who are ill or disabled struggle to carry containers to and from the water trucks.

The fact that the municipality did not warn anyone of the impending disaster also caused many residents not to have enough containers at hand to get water for their basic needs.

Rand Water has warned before that it was going to choke Merafong’s water supply because the municipality is owing them more than a R1 billion. Despite this, they do not seem to make adequate arrangements to pay it off. There are also no explanations of why the water shortages because so bad during the past week.

An issue that worsens the Rand Water cuts in the Carletonville area is that the town’s main reservoir across from the 007 shopping complex has been out of order for years due to problems after a sinkhole caved in under the main pipeline to the town’s water supply in November 2016. Despite the fact that the municipality has already spent millions, the reservoir still cannot be used.

Although the municipality is failing the community, some residents have started to come up with solutions.

“Many years ago, Fochville was not connected to the Rand Water network, but got its water from boreholes in the town. Why can we not go back to that system?” a long-time resident, Corne van er Merwe asked on Friday.

Although the municipality’s Marketing and Communications Manager, Temba Fezani, has refused to answer any questions from the Herald about the Rand Water water cut, he will again be proved for answers tomorrow.