After residents protested about service delivery issues and lack of water throughout Ikageng on the N12 on 22 February, water was restored to some.
However, they fear their relief will be short-lived again. A resident from Ward 9 in Mohadin, who asked to remain anonymous, says although the water has been restored, it is not guaranteed.
“Almost two weeks ago, we had no water again and had to depend on water tankers,” she said.
According to residents, they have recently been having consistent access to water, but they feel that it is too good to be true and prefer to hold their breath, wondering for how long it will last. “Word on the street is that there will be another shortage by the end of the month; we just do not know who to listen to anymore,” she lamented.
“There is a lot of controversy surrounding this issue; all we can do is wait and see what happens. ”Although the resident reports normal water pressure, it appears surrounding areas are still without water as they often see water trucks doing rounds around the neighbourhood.
In a statement from the municipality, a combination of factors led to the water shortage challenges, including high levels of ongoing load shedding and the mechanical failure of backup generators. Another resident, who also asked to remain anonymous, said the problem was not a lack of diesel in the generators.
“The problem is that the municipality thought it was a good idea to hire those generators. They have now realised that it costs too much,” the source explained. Residents are dissatisfied with the municipality’s quick fix and fear the solution will be short-lived. The municipality further confirmed that the Department of Technical Services had submitted an application to Eskom for exemption from the current rolling blackouts for water treatment plants and critical pump stations
. However, due to the high demand, Eskom can only offer exemptions to urgent applications for limited hours. “The J.B. Marks Local Municipality’s approval was for 72 hours. The exemption was only granted at 22:00 on Friday, 24 February. That would undoubtedly help improve the water levels. The municipality is at an advanced stage of procuring additional sets of generators,” the municipality’s statement read.
It confirmed that the department had had site meetings with Eskom and the SANDF. “The idea is to utilise an overhead line supplying power from the SANDF Base to the water treatment plants and pump stations along the Ventersdorp Road,” the statement read. Eskom had concurred with the application for a connection point to be permanently exempted from load shedding and work as a dedicated line to supply the critical water services infrastructure. The permanent connection to the SANDF line would commence as soon as possible.
