Residents of the higher area of Fochville have had to make do with almost no water for several weeks.

“We are in our fourth week. This is inhumane and illegal,” a resident of this area complained on Tuesday.

“Please, we need water in our taps, we cannot continue living like this. Please, we need legal help. Merafong is not helping us,” a resident pleaded.

Residents complain that their problems started after Rand Water indicated that it was going to cut the water supply to the Merafong City Local Municipality due to the municipality not paying its account. As in the past, the water cuts typically affect the higher lying areas such as around the Fochville reservoir, Carletonville Extension 8 and 9, and the area of Carletonville near the 007 shopping complex.

Although many affected residents of Carletonville saw their water pressure improve from last week, residents of the higher-lying area of Fochville have been struggling. “We only have water from 23:00 to 02:00, which means that my husband and I must jump out of bed, bath, and wash the dishes and laundry,” complains one of the many affected residents, Lezette Nel.

According to Nel and other residents, many people, including their ward councillor, Lindy Maritz, and a municipal official, Leah Moelane, are constantly attempting to help. Despite their efforts, the situation is not improving.

The Nel couple only gets along because they are lucky enough to have a swimming pool from which they can get water to flush their toilets and get water for other basic necessities.

“For most of the day, there is almost no water coming from our taps, even though we stay very close to the reservoir. We keep asking for help, but everyone gives other answers. Meanwhile, we are in the area of Merafong with the highest payment rate,” she complains.

Meanwhile, Maritz says that she and the other ward councillors of the areas in Carletonville that are most affected, Carlos Rebelo and Carl Steenekamp, have tried many things to get the problems sorted out and have even called in the help of the Deputy Minister of Finance, Ashor Surapen, to try to see whether there might not be some kind of debt relief for Merafong’s historical debt to Rand Water. As far as could be determined, Rand Water’s current increased water cuts have been implemented to force Merafong to pay more of this historical debt.

The Herald asked the municipality about how the issues could be resolved on Monday. The newspaper also asked whether the municipality can, maybe, like what has been done in Carletonville Extension 9 in the past, make more adjustments to the water pressure in Fochville so that residents of higher areas can have a better water supply.

No answers were received by printing time.