Brits water struggle continues
BUSINESS PEOPLE PROFITING
IT HAS been more than two years since police shot and killed three people during a water protest in Mothutlung.
But the water supply crisis continues to haunt the Madibeng local municipality in North West.
Last week, the North Gauteng High Court sentenced disgraced police officer Hyde Mophosho of the Klipgat public order policing unit to an effective 20 years for the triple murder of Michael Tshele, Osia Rahube and Maboifane Seemela and injuring two others during the protest in January 2014.
Mophosho is now in jail but the struggle persists for the people of Mothutlung and surrounding areas like Madinyane, Maboloka, Jericho, Malerato, Lethlakaneng and Moiletswane, whose residents still rely on trucked water.
Madinyane resident Edwin Mashego said water trucks often ignored his village, forcing him to beg neighbours for water.
“My tap hasn’t [had] a drop for over three years,” Mashego said.
Madibeng, which ironically means “place of water”, spends about R15-million a month hiring companies to truck water to communities.
Madibeng’s main water plant can supply 60-megalitre (sixty million litres) a day, according to Statistics SA.
A new plant, which was part of a R700-million upgrade, is reported to be only 23% complete.
An employee at one of the truck companies said: “This water is compromised and can be contaminated easily because the municipality has not provided us with proper pipes to draw water from the hydrant.
“We don’t have a stand-pipe and that means we sometimes touch the water with our bare hands before we take it to people.”
The employee had been drawing water from a hydrant in an industrial area in Brits when Sowetan spotted him. The hydrant’s pipe leaked while the area around it was bare and muddy.
“The companies are paid about R250 per hour [to deliver water].
“Sometimes we work up to 12 hours a day from Monday to Monday,” complained the employee.
The companies pocket more money in villages without communal tanks. Residents of such places often bring out drums.
“Filling up the drums delays us. One family can bring five 20-litre containers. The companies don’t mind … the more time we spend in one village the more money they get paid,” said the employee.
Those who can afford boreholes often sell the scarce commodity for R1 per 20-litre drum.
A local businessman who runs a borehole drilling company said a standard borehole costs R35 000.
“There are five companies that do this work professionally in Madibeng. Because of the huge demand, a lot of fly-by-night contractors who used to drill for mining companies are now infiltrating the market,” he said.
Johannes Rahube, the father of Osia Rahube, one of the three people killed by Mophosho, said water cuts were not as severe as before.
“The major problem is the poor quality of water. I sometimes feel that my son died in vain,” he said.
The community does not trust trucked water. Maboloka resident Louis Mbuli complained that the trucked water was only good for washing because it’s contaminated.
“This municipality is dead. We buy bottled water for drinking,” said Mbuli.
The municipality said yesterday that 10 companies were contracted monthly, through tender processes, to supply communities.
Spokesperson Tumelo Tshabalala said: “We do random sampling on the quality of the water and we have not come across any contamination.”
He added the current supply of water “is not enough hence the move to upgrade the plant to deal specifically with the issue of quantity as well as quality”.