BUSHBUCKRIDGE – According to BLM’s spokesperson, Claiton Khose, the area regularly experiences a shortage of water, which negatively affects service delivery.

This week the municipality announced that the water supply was interrupted at various parts of Bushbuckridge, after some people who had been trying to illegally connect water, damaged the main pipe.

The situation was worsened to such an extent, that it also affected Matikwana Hospital and other vital facilities in the area, according to the statement issued by the municipality.

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“The municipality has been trying its best to make sure that people get clean water. But all our efforts are being hampered by those who illegally connected water to their yards. Every time we repair the damaged water infrastructure, they destroy it again.

“We have tried and failed to convince them to stop vandalising the infrastructure. Very soon we will promulgate the by-laws that will give us more power when reporting the perpetrators to the law enforcement agencies. At the moment we don’t have strong laws that will enable us to have strong cases against those who are at fault,” said Khosa. Be that as it may, Khosa did not divulge any more information about these by-laws.

“Our investigations revealed that the allocation of new residential areas also contribute to the problem, as the residents feel obliged to illegally connect to the main water pipeline so that they can also have water in their yard. The municipality loses millions of rand because of this problem. Remember, we fix it every now and again at the different areas within the municipality,” he said.

Vusi Mashigo, a resident of Marite just outside Hazyview, said, “Around 2012, the municipality installed taps in our yards, but we never saw a drop of water coming out of them for so many years. Then we went to the main pipe to connect our small pipes there and we started to get the water. The taps connected by the municipality are not working, while those we connected are working.” “The municipality is failing and wants to shift the blame on the community members. We took action after realising that their taps were not functioning at all,” said Mashigo.