Community outside Hazyview plead for water for more than 8 years
Shabalala community members have complained about their dry taps and feel neglected by their local municipality.
The residents of Shabalala are frustrated with their dry taps.
About eight years ago, the City of Mbombela (CoM) installed taps in the yards of many residing in areas such as Sgodiphola, Soweto and some parts of Mountain View, but they only received water for the first two years.
A resident from the area, Charles Ngomane, said many community meetings have been held to plead with the ward councillors to resolve the issue.
“The ward councillors keep promising us they will fix the issue, but still nothing has been done. When the municipality first installed the taps, we had water but it did not last long. This has in fact led the people, especially those owning guests houses and rental rooms to connect illegally, resulting in a great impact on the rest of us who do not want to tamper with government infrastructure. Some have resorted to using wells. We cannot suffer waiting for service delivery while we voted for change,” Ngomane said.
A ward councillor for Shabalala, Mthobisi Ngomane, said the lack of water is a mistake of the previous councillors.
Mthobisi said the illegal water connections is the main reason for the lack of water in Sgodiphola and Soweto.
“I acknowledge that the community does not have water running from their allocated taps. It is a mistake that happened years ago when I was not yet a ward councillor. Wards 3, 25 and 39 are faced with major water issues, but we do supply them with water tankers to refill their buckets and drums on certain days,” he said.
“When the community protests, they damage the infrastructure that is intended to be used to assist them with service delivery,” he said.
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The CoM’s spokesperson, Joseph Ngala, said the community is supposed to be supplied with running water twice a week.
“Based on the Old River Scheme, the supply programme was designed for water to be supplied twice a week for every village. The frequency of supply would improve to daily as soon as the new Nyongane Booster Pump Station has been commissioned and the progress is currently just over 90%. The main supply pipeline is from the RDP and Elevated Steel Tanks sections, which are fed under pressure by the Shabalala Booster Pump Station located on the property of the Old and New Nyongane Booster Pump Station,” he said.
The distribution is seriously disrupted by the community as they often operate the valves themselves and make illegal connections.
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“It must be noted that the capacities of the supply reservoirs require upgrading and is no longer able to meet the demands due to exponential population growth in these areas and in the Nsikazi North Region as a whole. With the new plant being commissioned, the Hoxane Water System Project, the bulk distribution networks supplying water to all villages needs reinforcement and upgrading. This will ensure equitable distribution and access to water supply to their points of use,” Ngala said.
