Water crisis in Govan Mbeki Municipality angers community
Communities and businesses were affected, and some big companies sent their employees home until there is a resolution to the water crisis.
Many Govan Mbeki Municipality (GMM) residents had to fetch water from sewer manholes and streams because of the recent water crisis in the municipal area.
The Rand Water Bloemendal pump station stopped pumping water to the region on January 20 because a transformer that supplies Bloemendal with electricity packed up at Eskom’s Strubensvale site.
Replacing the broken transformer was done on January 26, but electricians were still working on connecting the new transformer.
Communities and businesses were affected, and some big companies and the municipality sent their employees home until there is a resolution to the water crisis.
By January 26, several schools, clinics and even courts had closed because of the water shortage.
Most shops found their bottled water sold out within three days.
eMbalenhle and Leandra community members decided to get water for their waterborne toilets from sewerage manholes. Others dug holes in wetlands to get water, unaware of the results of using that water.
The municipality eventually dispatched water tankers on January 25. It started with the hospitals and clinics and later the communities.
Some residents didn’t believe the power failure issue at the Bloemendal pump station and accused the municipality of failing to pay Rand Water’s bill.
“The community is in crisis. We cannot cook, wash, bath or use toilets because there is no water.
“From last Saturday, our municipality failed to be prepared for this situation. How can we trust this institution?
“It took them five days to think of the contingency plan while residents and businesses suffer. What kind of leaders do we have?” asked a community member.
Several residents told Ridge Times they will hold the municipality accountable if there is a cholera outbreak.
When addressing the media on January 23, Mayor Nhlakanipho Zuma said the water crisis in the GMM is a matter between Rand Water and Eskom. Zuma said they had paid Rand Water R136m last month (December), far above the usual amount.
“Our usual account is sitting at about R35m. We paid R136m to try and catch up with all the arrears conferred to the account.
“We are doing very well in paying Rand Water,” said Zuma.
Zuma said the municipality is looking at several future solutions to avoid a similar crisis and is working with the Council for Geoscience to include possibly using groundwater.
Zuma also said for the municipality to use groundwater, they must be sure of its quality and consider the mining operations in the area to avoid providing the community with acidic or contaminated water.
“Ours is a mined area, and we face sewage spills. We are upgrading our sewage treatment plants to limit the volume of spills into our water streams.
“We are raising a budget to upgrade our infrastructure that will, in the future, purify and supply water to our community, but currently, we depend on Rand Water because of the water quality they supply,” said Zuma.
Zuma said statistics were released, and according to the ratings for water quality, the GMM is number one in the Mpumalanga province and 16th in the country.
