SECUNDA – Residents in most areas of the town are fed up with Govan Mbeki Municipality after they had to spent the weekend without water.
Rand Water decided to throttle water supply to Govan Mbeki Municipality again because of the municipality’s failure to settle its account.
Ms Mariaan Chamberlain, DA councillor, said Rand Water is not happy with the municipality only settling its current account, and demand that the municipality also pay some of its old debt.
“For now we will also have only a certain amount of water allocated to the municipality and once we exceed it they will restrict us with even more,” said Ms Chamberlain. She said Rand Water decided to throttle the water supply to Secunda, Kinross and eMbalenhle with 50 per cent.
Evander and Bethal also experienced water shortage problems over the weekend and by Monday, 18 January, residents in the Govan Mbeki municipal area were still sitting without water.
Rand Water throttled the municipality’s water supply last year as well, then an amount was paid and Rand Water supplied water, but now the municipality and in practice residents, are facing the same issue again.
The water issue with Govan Mbeki Municipality began in 2017 when Rand Water began throttling water supply to Govan Mbeki municipal areas with 20 per cent. As if limited water supply is not enough, residents of the Govan Mbeki municipal area also have to face load shedding as the municipality also owes Eskom R2.3 billion.
Govan Mbeki Municipality’s debt with Rand Water was R351 million last year, now it is even more. Residents living in low lying areas still had water last weekend, however, residents living in higher areas only had water at night.
Ms Chamberlain said that this issue is unfortunately not something that a couple of residents who serve on the forum leadership can fix anymore. She said the MMC at Govan Mbeki Municipality told her that the area is exceeding the daily water limit.
“I do not understand how that could be possible since Rand Water has been throttling this area’s water since 2017, first with 20 per cent, then with 40 per cent and now with 50 per cent,” said Ms Chamberlain. According to her, the water reservoir in Extension 22 has been broken and out of order for a long time.
“It was vandalised, then the insurance company paid out and it was fixed and five days later it was again vandalised and plundered.
“Now the insurance company does not want to pay out again unless the pump station and reservoir are secured.”
Mr Donald Green, head of communication at Govan Mbek Municipality, said the municipality continues to provide water at 80 per cent in Bethal and 60 per cent in Leandra and Trichardt.
He said Rand Water adjusted restrictions to achieve 60 per cent supply in Secunda, eMbalenhle and Kinross.
“The municipality convened an urgent meeting with Rand Water over the weekend about payment arrangement options proposed by the municipality,” said Mr Green.
“In the meantime, water trucks will be helping at affected areas.”
