LCBP is a community-based organisation fighting for better municipal governance and service delivery in Phalaborwa. According to Rodger Ferguson of LCBP, they received a flood of reports from residents of certain portions of Phalaborwa of foul-smelling and nasty-tasting tap water and of residents falling ill from what appears to have been raw sewage-contaminated municipal water. The affected areas include an old-age home, residential properties, numerous tourism accommodation establishments, supermarkets, and places making and handling food.

Upon investigating it was established that a water pipeline supplying the affected area, which ran through a sewage manhole on the corner of Park and Hans Pirow streets had been damaged sometime earlier, resulting in raw sewage flowing into the municipal water supply system. Following a complaint from a tourism accommodation establishment, Lepelle Northern Water (the bulk water supplier) was requested to conduct water tests in Phalaborwa town. These tests confirmed that the municipal water supply was compromised.

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However Lepelle did not disclose the test outcome, it referred the results to MDM, the water services authority, but still community members were not informed of the test results. “The municipalities are under obligation in terms of the law Water Services Act (1997), which states that if there is an issue with water quality that poses a health risk, that they are required to take immediate steps to rectify the problem and inform the affected community. “This incident is all part of a bigger water and sewage problem and years of no maintenance means that the water and sanitation infrastructure is near collapse.

The municipalities don’t have the political will, means, or capacity to turn the situation around,” said Ferguson. Ward 11 councillor Lonika Booysen confirmed to the Herald that she too received complaints about contaminated water. “As soon as we learned of this we reported it to the local municipality and did a site inspection and water tests were done, but we were not informed of the results,” she said. BPM spokesman Jonas Mahesu referred the Herald to municipal manager Dr Kgosi Pilusa who was unreachable at the time of print. MDM spokesperson Odas Ngobeni has not responded to the Herald’s enquiries at the time of print.