KAAPMUIDEN – Residents had to find alternative ways to get water to their homes for a week after the town’s main supply was cut off.
Residents say their water troubles have been a long time coming as, in the past few months, they have been subject to very strict water restrictions. Water was only available in the evenings but the taps have been dry.
Members of the Kaapmuiden Forum went to investigate and found the supply dam, on the nearby Siyathuthuka farm, had been emptied and maintenance work was in progress.
Following various enquiries without receiving any answers, local Democratic Alliance councillor Ms Mariëtte Preddy heard of the problem and set about trying to resolve the situation.
She found that the owners of the farm had no idea that the dam was supplying water to the settlement.
The local division of RCL Foods (formely TSB), who are helping the owners of the Siyathuthuka Farm to get the farm up and running, immediately got involved when they heard of the problem.
In trying to restore the water supply, it was found that the borehole pump was no longer working. RCL Foods then bought a new, stronger pump as their contribution to assisting the community.
As the town is owned by Transnet, it is private property and doesn’t fall under the Nkomazi Local Municipality’s service jurisdiction. The company has their own water purification plant in town and residents pay a fixed amount each month for water. This means that the municipality is not obliged to help supply water or send water tankers to supplement their meagre water supply, as residents had hoped they would.
By Monday evening, water supply from the borehole had been restored to the extent that the reservoir could be filled.
The water supply is currently being monitored very strictly and residents only have access to a minimal amount for the most urgent household uses.
Preddy says this is not the first time that a Transnet-owned settlement has had water troubles. Impala, close to Malalane, also had their water cut off after new water laws came into effect and RCL Foods could no longer supply the settlement.
Preddy states that a nearby fertiliser factory is currently supplying residents with water once a week.
Preddy, under the banner of the DA, will also be taking the matter of Kaapmuiden’s lack of water to the Human Right Commission. Yesterday she was preparing all the necessary documents for the complaints procedure.
