POLOKWANE –  The DA in the city urgently requested that Mayor John Mpe attend to the ongoing water crisis as a top priority.

This comes as the ongoing water shortages in the city have escalated beyond levels of simple inconvenience, but are bordering on a humanitarian crisis as certain areas have been without water for more than 14 days now, DA caucus leader in the municipality, Johan Retters last week said in a media release.

Retters added that it further seems that no entity is prepared to take accountability, as is indicated by the very public spat between Polokwane Municipality and Lepelle Northern Water (LNW), and he reckons that this situation is an insult to residents.

Lepelle Northern Water under fire

According to Retters, LNW repeatedly hides behind excuses of pump failures, power interruptions and “technical challenges”.

“These explanations have become routine, predictable and unacceptable and a bulk water supplier that cannot guarantee stable supply, maintain its infrastructure or communicate in a transparent manner has failed in its mandate. A resident remarked that LNW’s claim that the entity provides water in accordance with the quota approved by the Department of Water and Sanitation is not valid.

“Why does the department not increase the quota to force LNW to provide more water to enable the city to preserve an emergency supply at the huge reservoir on Krugersburg that has been empty for years now,” he asked.

Municipality accused of poor planning

At the same time, the Polokwane Municipality cannot pretend to be the helpless victim, he remarked.

“Years of infrastructure neglect, water losses tallying up to 38%, collapsing reservoirs, poor planning and weak management have left the city vulnerable. The municipality’s inability to manage distribution, respond swiftly to outages or implement meaningful contingency measures directly contribute to this crisis, Retters claimed.

Call for mayoral intervention

The DA is confident that a decisive intervention by the mayor may go a long way towards mitigating the impact of the water crisis and the party urged that Mpe without further delay facilitate immediate, transparent joint reporting by both Lepelle Northern Water and the municipality, come up with a public, time-bound action plan with clear responsibilities and that emergency intervention from provincial and national government be sought.

The DA also insisted that there be consequences for officials who continue to fail residents without repercussions.