The residents of Grahamstown’s townships continue to be disenfranchised by the ongoing water crisis. In Tuesday’s edition of Grocott’s Mail we ran a story about a house in Joza that went up in flames. With barely 20 litres of drinking water on hand, the neighbours could do nothing to extinguish the fire as there
was no tap water available.
The residents of Grahamstown’s townships continue to be disenfranchised by the ongoing water crisis. In Tuesday’s edition of Grocott’s Mail we ran a story about a house in Joza that went up in flames. With barely 20 litres of drinking water on hand, the neighbours could do nothing to extinguish the fire as there
was no tap water available.
Media and Communications Officer at Makana Municipality, Thandy Matebese, said the municipality has been delivering drinking water via trucks to the areas that do not have a supply and they have also placed a number of 5000 litre water tanks in Joza, Noluthando Hall and Fingo Village for community use.
However, residents who live near Noluthando Hall have been queueing for drinking water at a nearby tap which barely drips enough water to fill a 20 litre container.
A resident, Fundile Tshanyane said:‘‘the water in the two tanks which are filled by the tanker finished yesterday because there are too many people depending on it. The water barely lasts for two hours after being replenished and we constantly have to queue for water here.”
Matebese was unavailable at the time of publication to comment on the situation at Noluthando Hall. However, in his initial comment, he said the municipality is locating and repairing faulty valves which have resulted in the slowing down of water supply.
Apparently, James Kleinhas Dam, which is the sole supplier of Grahamstown’s water, has been unable to pump water to high-lying areas (which were previously supplied by the Waainek Dam) due to the fact that there is only one working pump.
Matebese pointed out that infrustracturally, the piping system was initially meant to supply 40000 people and since the Grahamstown population has increased, the system has suffered under the demand.
