Joza residents have had enough of water shortages. They say they have no option but to wait and see until the ongoing problem is solved by the municipality.
Joza residents have had enough of water shortages. They say they have no option but to wait and see until the ongoing problem is solved by the municipality.
Meanwhile, residents claim that Makana not communicated with the public about the outages.
A Joza resident in the Nompondo area, Zukiswa Mafani said she has had no water for about three weeks.
“I have no option to fetch water from the tanks at Noluthando Hall which I hear were put up last week. It makes life very difficult,” says Mafani.
“Yes, I can deal with the struggle for water to wash and eat, but not having water to flush the toilet is risky because there are many diseases you can catch from the faeces piling up,” she said.
Mafani has to cart water from the water tanks a distance down Nompondo Street to her house using a wheel barrow.
Problem for many
Another Joza resident, Wendy Madikwa who stays in Block C complains of painful joints due to the heavy lifting and pulling while carting of water to and fro a few times a day. A resident in Block B Kholeka Klaas said there has been no water for about month.
“Nobody is telling us the reasons for this. There was a car with a loudspeaker that went around this area yesterday[Tuesday] afternoon telling us the water will be back later on that day, but it’s still not back,” she said.
She added that the municipal truck that usually carts water to them was also around on Tuesday morning.
“The water you get from that truck is sometimes brown, probably because they don’t clean the rust that builds up in there,” Klaas said.
She said this situation is similar to when the municipality failed to take action last year when she and her neighbour’s toilets were damaged in a storm.
“We reported this to the Fire Department. They are good at taking notes, but there is no action,” she said.
At Tuesday’s Ordinary Council Meeting, Municipal Manager Ntombi Baart discussed the lack of communication regarding the disruption of municipal services to the affected parts of Extension 3, 4 and certain parts of Joza.
Carting water
She said that the water supply, although it at low pressure, would be restored to the affected parts by Tuesday evening. But when Grocott’s Mail visited Nompondo Street on Wednesday morning, the public tap near Ethembeni Senior Service Centre was running and some residents were seen carting water up Nompondo Street.
Ethembeni Senior Service Centre manager, Grace Ngcete said they still do not have water and they have had to place a huge bucket of water near the toilet for flushing. She also mentioned that the supply is sporadic, coming on shortly in the morning and then off again.
Municipal spokesperson, Thandy Matebese said the water problem in the Nompondo area hasn’t reached a resolution; even before their recent outage. He said an “investigation is underway” and the water unit plans to dig up the pipes to investigate the problem.
What can be down to resolve Grahamstown’s water shortage and water pressure problem?
