Taps run dry in Lenyenye village

Alex Matlala

LIMPOPO – Taps in the Lenyenye township outside Tzaneen ran dry a fortnight ago and pleas at the municipality have apparently gone unanswered.

This shortage of running water has caused great distress in the community, derailing their daily lives.

“All we ask is for the municipality to provide us with water for everyday use”

Last Tuesday a scuffle broke out between one of the residents, Lilly Mabiletja, she tried to access the municipality offices to fetch water.

“I walked into their offices to fetch water for bathing because I was late for work, but the guards told me to ‘voetsek’,” Mabiletja told CV last week.

Karabo Letsoalo, a gr 12 pupil at Phusela High School, said she and her family had to buy water from villages such as Mojeteng, Bridgeway, Marumofhase and Rita at R1 per 25 litres.

“Today I had to report late for the trial exams because by the time others were writing, I was still travelling long distances to buy water,” said Letsoalo during an interview at the school yesterday.

Last month residents in villages between Lenyenye and Nkowankowa took to the streets barricading the busy R71 road leading to town with burning tires and logs of wood due to water scarcity.

At the time, Mopani District Municipality appointed several service providers in an effort to bring water to the affected areas.

Nevil Ndlala, Greater Tzaneen Municipality spokesperson, was not available for comment but Nil Shikwambane, Mopani District Municipality spokesperson, said the situation got out of hand after officials working with water went on strike. Shikwambane assured residents their plight was being attended to.

Early this year, Nkakareng Rakgoale, Mayor for the Mopani District Municipality, unveiled a R560 million budget for water reticulation projects in Mopani. The budget was aimed at ensuring that arid villages which had no water before could receive water.

In August last year, President Jacob Zuma unveiled a R55 million water reticulation plant in Giyani to thwart the escalation of water shortages in the area.

That was soon after Nomvula Mokonyane, Minister for Water and Sanitation committed R100 million to the region to help with water scarcity.

Phuti Seloba, spokesperson for the Limpopo Provincial Government said, like any other province, Limpopo was sitting on waterless grounds. He said the province was building dams to contain ground and rain water. Lepelle Northern Water, which is the water authority and an implementing agent for the Department of Water Limpopo said the province was hoping to use ground water by drilling boreholes while awaiting the completion of the dams.

Pheneus Legodi, chief executive officer (CEO) for Lepelle Northern Water, told CV that since their appointment, several boreholes had been drilled in areas hard hit by drought such as Greater Letaba, Giyani and Tzaneen in an effort to bring clean running water to the people.

Legodi said through the help of Premier Stan Mathabatha, the majority of villages which had no water before were now drinking water drilled by Lepelle.