Waainek residents have entered their fifth week without a proper water supply, and Joza Extension nine residents have been experiencing water cuts regularly during the past two weeks of the National Arts Festival.
Now the water is only slightly dripping from the taps. At Daniel Street in Joza water supply has been an issue since 2008, but nothing has been done about it.
Waainek residents have entered their fifth week without a proper water supply, and Joza Extension nine residents have been experiencing water cuts regularly during the past two weeks of the National Arts Festival.
Now the water is only slightly dripping from the taps. At Daniel Street in Joza water supply has been an issue since 2008, but nothing has been done about it.
The residents did not receive a formal notice from the municipality. Hlumisa Ralo, a married mother of two, said, “This is ridiculous.
For days water has been coming out of the tap at random times, maybe four hours a day. “We have to walk from Extension nine to six, a three kilometre distance, only to collect water, and as a result my children are constipated because of eating bread, because I can’t cook.”
The municipality delivers a truck load of water to Waainek prison centre and to other residents every third day, but according to the residents it is not enough, so every day they use their own tractor to cart water to the centre.
According to a Waainek resident who did not want to be named, the municipality first said there is water, but it is flowing to somewhere unknown to them, and that they were going to install pipes two weeks before to get water running to the centre’s reservoir.
“Three weeks have passed and still nothing is done, I don’t think they care about our problem. Now we are all getting angry about this,” said the resident.
Makana Municipality spokesperson Matebese said Grahamstown only has two sources of water supply; Waanek, which is dried up, and James Kleinhans dam, where a shared demand is focused due to droughts in the province.
Waanek is situated on a higher level of Grahamstown, and there is not enough pressure to pump in those higher areas.
“We just have to wait and pray for the rain,” said Matebese. According to him the municipality had investigated the issue two months ago by sending out technicians to dig to find out if the problem was in the pipes.
The municipality has engaged with the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA), with the intent to source a R50 million loan, of which R30 million will be used to boost and improve Grahamstown’s water infrastructure.
