Education dept to send water tankers to Hammanskraal schools
Hammanskraal has battled a water crisis for more than four years.
The Gauteng Department of Education will provide water tankers to schools in Hammanskraal to deal with the water crisis in the area.
MEC Matome Chiloane revealed this in his school opening readiness and placement update on Tuesday.
Hammanskraal has battled a water crisis for more than four years.
Chiloane appealed to the community to allow those who have been given the opportunity to deliver water to the children to do their job.
“We know that there’s an issue with business forums that have a tendency of disrupting such services, especially in Tshwane. We are appealing to you to allow us to do so [our job] without any interruption,” he said.
He said water tankers have been employed to provide emergency water to schools on 67 occasions and “20 emergency sanitation units” supplied to alleviate the effect of their sanitation shortage.
In 2019, Tshwane mayor Randall Williams said the current sanitation capacity in the area was insufficient to serve the needs of the residents.
“Not only do we need to update the equipment but we also need to double its size.”
Williams said it was unfair for residents to pay for water used only for washing, toilets and cleaning.
“This was why we need to fast-track this project [upgrade of the sanitation plant in the area]. We are providing water from Magalies and Rand Water,” said Williams.
On Wednesday, schools reopened across the province.
Chiloane said his department was effecting emergency repairs and renovations to schools that had been burgled, vandalised and torched.
“ A total of 120 schools have been affected by vandalism since the beginning of the 2022 academic year… 24 since the December holiday period,” he said.
He said vandalism included a variety of damage and theft of school property.
“Repairs to vandalised schools have been ongoing since October 2022 and none of the 120 schools were closed because of vandalism,” she said.
He said a total of 488 schools were receiving day-to-day infrastructure maintenance.
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