Three years without water‚ three years without dignity
The DA has described as a crime against humanity that residents, for the third year, are without water.
David Matsena
The DA has says it is “a crime against humanity” that residents of Winterveldt‚ Hammanskraal and certain sections of Soshanguve and Mabopane have been without water for three years yet are still billed for municipal services.
Speaking to Rekord on Wednesday, following his party’s oversight visit to Pretoria’s north western townships, DA spokesperson on environmental affairs, Janho Engelbrecht said residents’ quality of life had been worsened by maladministration in the Tshwane metro.
“The metro has ignored all calls made by the DA to step in and turn the situation around.
“What I have witnessed in these townships is truly a crime against humanity. It saddens me that for the past three years these townships‚ and a once thriving municipality‚ has degenerated into a serviceless‚ corruption-rife and desolate municipality‚” Engelbrecht said.
“Taps are non-functional and residents have to walk up to 20 to 30km to collect water from a nearby church‚ for which they are charged R1 per 25 litres.”
He said the DA would write to the Minister of Water and Sanitation‚ Nomvula Mokonyane‚ to request she urgently tabled a turnaround plan for the northern townships of Pretoria.
“We will also be writing to the chairpersons of the portfolio committees of cooperative governance and traditional affairs‚ and water and sanitation‚ to request a joint committee be established to summon all roleplayers that need to account to parliament,” he said.
He said the party would also request the SA Human Rights Commission to investigate the human rights violations in the affected communities.
He said residents’ miseries were further compounded by fears that raw sewage sludge, from the malfunctioning Rooiwal water treatment plant, was making its way into the Apies river.
The plant, which is north of Pretoria, reportedly received volumes far greater than it could handle.
According to Engelbrecht, workers at the plant were by-passing the system, as a temporary solution by pumping the sludge onto an open plain as the plant could no longer handle the load.
“If it were to function as it should, the plant would shut down completely,” he said.
This method of handling the sludge build-up was not sustainable and the malfunction had seen sewage running into the Apies river which fed the Themba dam that provided Hammanskraal with drinking water.
“Apart from this, the water is also used for irrigation by farmers bordering the river. Vegetables irrigated with this water pose a future health hazard when consumed,” notes Engelbrecht.
According to DA Tshwane ward 96 councillor Hannes Coetzee, earlier this week, an E.coli count conducted in the river was found to be dangerously high.
Engelbrecht said water tankers must be brought into these areas as a matter of urgency to prevent E.coli infection.
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