White River left high and dry

WHITE RIVER – Residents of the Hillsview suburb found themselves high and dry early in the new year after being left waterless. The cause was traced to illegal electrical connections, kilometres away, at the informal Msholozi settlement in Rocky Drift. These connections caused circuit boards of water pumps to burn out, leaving Hillsview waterless as soon as the town’s reservoir ran dry.

Having experienced low water pressure for weeks, the supply finally ran out late on Friday afternoon.

This prompted DA councillor and resident, Ms Trudie Grove-Morgan, to determine the cause of the problem on Saturday morning. She was informed by a technical worker of the Mbombela Local Municipality (MLM) that the town’s reservoir had run dry due to electrical problems with the pumping system. According to her, the municipality was aware that no water had been pumped into the reservoir since the beginning of December. No notice was issued to alert residents of this situation. Water is pumped from Nelspruit to supplement the town’s other supply from Longmere Dam.

After being informed by workers of MLM that they couldn’t enter Msholozi to investigate the matter due to threats by that community, Grove-Morgan organised a police escort so that she could inspect the problem personally. “I was shocked to see what it looked like there,

and we call ourselves a city of excellence,” she stated.

“This is unacceptable,” she commented, adding that ratepayers were suffering due to the inability of council to manage its resources. “The water crisis in town will get worse if Mbombela does not take this matter seriously. The people who pay for their services are now suffering. Where is the MMC for technical services? What is disturbing is that they knew about this long before Christmas!”

This sentiment is shared by Mr Piet Skead, chairman of the local ratepayers association. “If Mbombela lets ratepayers pay for services they do not receive, it will leave us with no choice but to withhold our taxes,” he concluded, and added it might be time for citizens to take legal steps to protect their rights.

In response Mr Joseph Ngala, spokesman for MLM, said the electrical circuit boards would have been replaced on Monday (January 6) and that a type of water load-shedding will be implemented in town. He said that only high-lying suburbs had been affected, but that residents would not feel the effect of water shortages this week. According to Ngala, the illegal connections seemed to have been done by professionals and this was being investigated and criminal charges might be imminent. In addition he expressed his dismay that this kind of activity was costing MLM money and affecting its ratepayers. “I hope that now the three spheres of government can get together and urgently finalise an integrated human-settlement plan,” he said.

Meanwhile, residents of Hillsview are trying to cope with the situation. According to one such man a water truck was sent on Sunday.

“People had to collect water with buckets and other utensils, but the sad thing is that the truck came in the morning, so those who had already left for church did not get any water,” he said.

Other parts of town are also experiencing problems. Ayesha Akoojee says her mother, who stays near the centre of town, has not had a drop of water from December 31 until now and Ms Angelique Coetzee, in the same suburb, said, “We have water but the pressure is so horrible that we have to run a bath for an half an hour before we can actually bath in a level of 10 centimetres. It’s ridiculous! Don’t even try the shower as it only trickles enough to get your face wet.”

Mbombela has not yet commented on why no measures had been taken when it first learnt of the problem at the beginning of December.

Ngala did confirm that security measures would have to be reinstated at Msholozi to prevent future illegal connections. He urged residents to report any such activity to the council on 013-759-9304.