The water crisis remains a major thorn in this town’s side. Some residents have been without water for six weeks, while others have dirty, foul-smelling water from their taps.

The FF Plus is calling for the City of Mbombela’s (CoM) manager, Wiseman Khumalo, to urgently intervene and resolve the matter, as residents demand answers as to when the situation will be resolved and what the timeline for the process is.

“We, the voters and citizens of White River, are waiting on the municipality to take action and deliver the services we as taxpayers pay for. We are aware that the reservoirs are empty. We are aware that load-shedding prevents the pumps from working. What we want to know is what is being done to fix this situation?”

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The constantly leaking, ageing infrastructure and load-shedding remain the main factors responsible for the continuing water problems. Some of the residents are forced to buy water for consumption. Those who cannot afford this, depend on water tankers that come once a week, but this is also a problem, as the older citizens cannot always manage to get to them.

The FF Plus’s Proportional Representative in the CoM, Freddy Robertson, said the municipal lack of management of water sources and supply are not up to standard in White River.

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“Currently, during load-shedding, no water is pumped from the Boschrand and Phumlani pumping stations to White River’s reservoirs. No contingency plans are in place. Promises of generators at these stations also appear to be lip service. Talk of pipelines that would operate independently of load-shedding also bore no fruit,” he said.

Robertson said the FF Plus also demands an investigation into the qualifications and work experience of Sipho Sibeko, the general manager of the municipal technical department, and whether he is competent to fill this position.

“The access to clean water is a constitutional right and it is the municipality’s duty to ensure water is supplied to communities. We will continue to put pressure on the municipality to properly utilise water resources for the benefit of all its residents,” he said.

CoM’s spokesperson, Joseph Ngala, had not commented on Lowvelder’s queries by the time of going online.