Riversands Primary beats water shortages with borehole power
A decade-old borehole continues to keep learners in class and the community supplied despite ongoing water challenges in Diepsloot.
Riversands Primary School is one of the oldest schools in Diepsloot.
Built on a farm in the 50s, the school the school always had water issues, right until the day, in 1998, when they managed to secure a borehole.
Mojela Mpho, the principal, said two American visitors, Tom Agin and Corbishley, noticed Riversands Primary when it was still a small, struggling farm school in need of water.
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After reaching an agreement with then principal Tlhage Petlele, they installed a borehole that has sustained the school for the past 28 years.
“I was just a teacher at that time,” said Mpho, “and the borehole has been very handy. When schools are disrupted by having no water on their premises, we cannot relate to that because of the borehole. We don’t have to send kids home because there is no water, now we simply continue with school.”
The borehole has been helpful, not only to the school, but also to the community of Riversands and Diepsloot as well, according to Mpho. When the community is without water, residents come with their bottles and buckets to fill up from the borehole.
Ennis Mongwe, a resident, said: “From 2011 until 2019, we were staying at the informal settlements and had no water at all, so, as community members, we would fetch watch from the school, up until our area was supplied with water”.
Although the borehole is great for the school, it comes with its own challenges. When the electricity is off, the pump cannot pump enough water for the three tanks. So, the school struggles when electricity has been off for a long time.
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Mpho said the other, more pressing, challenge, is that the number of learners has doubled from 750, when they started, to 1 576. “To get more water for the whole school, we must install a whole new borehole, as this current one cannot be expanded, and was set to provide for a specific number.
“We do have one JoJo tank, which supplies water for us during times in need. It is filled every morning and afternoon to help us a bit.”
With this in mind, the school is approaching the Gauteng department of education for funding for their second borehole, to provide clean water for, not only their growing student body, but the entire community.
In the meantime, they advise all other schools to get their own boreholes, and to avoid those disruption days that are becoming all too familiar in Gauteng.
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