EVANDER – While residents in Secunda and other towns in the Govan Mbeki municipal area had water last week, residents in some areas of Evander were still without water.
One resident said she had to fill containers at her workplace and take it home so that she and her family could have water for the evening with which to bath and cook.
A family member of a patient at Evander Hospital said his wife gave birth to their child, but the hospital could not even give her food because they had no water.
The man said he was also not allowed to take his wife food because of Covid-19 regulations.
The Ridge Times asked the CEO of Evander Hospital for comment, but is still waiting on her reply.
Mr James Masango, the DA’s deputy chairman of the federal council, said in a press statement that water is one of the basic preventative measures against Covid-19 and is needed for regularly washing your hands for twenty seconds.
“Some residents are exposed to unhealthy and unhygienic conditions for weeks now right inside their own houses,” said Mr Masango.
The DA challenged the executive mayor of Govan Mbeki Municipality, Mr Nhlakanipho Zuma, to release a statement to inform residents about when the water will be restored as Govan Mbeki Municipality won its case against Rand Water in the High Court.
The municipality recently took Rand Water to court after Rand Water throttled water supply to towns within the Govan Mbeki municipal area because the municipality failed to settle its arrears account with Rand Water.
Ms Mariaan Chamberlain, DA councillor, explained said portions of Evander do not have water because it takes the reservoir two to three days to fill up again after it has been emptied.
“When they began filling it up, everybody began using water and thus it was empty again,” said Ms Chamberlain.
She said on Friday, 29 January that the reservoir was filled up at 80 per cent.
Mr Donald Green, head of communication at Govan Mbeki Municipality, also said on Friday that the water was filling up at 80 per cent and the millwright was on site to begin the process of pumping water.
