Makana residents are experiencing a sense of deja vu as water problems come back home to Grahamstown. Some communities have been without water for more than three weeks.
Makana residents are experiencing a sense of deja vu as water problems come back home to Grahamstown. Some communities have been without water for more than three weeks.
"Our team is on site as we speak and are working on the problem," Municipal Manager Pravine Naidoo told Grocott's Mail on Tuesday 13 August.
Makana's communications officer issued a press release on Wednesday explaining the problems and saying they hoped to have water restored by Friday 16 August. Councillors at Tuesday's ordinary council meeting expressed concern over the water outages.
But officials have been mostly silent on the outages – and Joza residents have had enough. "No one tells us what is happening. We just see our taps dried up. I am very angry about this," said Thandiwe Nabo who daily fetches water from a tank two streets away.
"This is now the third week we have been without water. How are we supposed to survive?"
"There was no notice issued to us to tell us that we will not have water for more than a week," said Bongani Madikwa. "There was not even a meeting."
Vuyiswa Ralawe says being without water for more than two weeks has put a stop to the soup kitchen she runs for the church from her Nompondo Street home. "Now I cannot cook for the people in my community. You cannot honestly tell me that the broken pipe Makana municipality claimed was the cause of water outages last year is the same problem even now," she said.
"I have small children who go to school [living with me]and we have to share our water. After we bath we have to fill the cistern of the toilet for flushing," she said.
But the crisis has proved an opportunity for some.
Ralawe said some people were hiring out their wheelbarrows, or even fetching water – at a price. "We are charged R5 per trip for a wheelbarrow. But we are old and we don't have that much money every day," said the elderly woman.
But the biggest frustration from Joza residents has been their councillors' silence. "We just wake and there is no water. There is not even a notice or apology. It is frustrating us a lot," said Welile Dili, a father of two.
He said they queue every day for water from a tank in the street. "I fill up two drums of water, one 60-litre and a 40-litre drum. That lasts for two days," Dili said.
