Community drinks unclean water with animals
GA-MMACHACHA
The situation is very bad at Ga Mmachacha village due to water crisis; the place is 23, 3 kilometres (KM) from Jane Furse area in the Makhuduthamaga local municipality.
Some water pipes in the area are clearly broken and water from the sump above ground appears contaminated and the residents have described it as muddy with floating particles of dirt visible.
Residents there say they had to walk more than 20km to buy water from their neighbour who had donkey cats.
The mother of two who lives at Ga Mmachacha said many children have fallen ill and ended up in the local clinics. While some residents saying the situation is very bad because no even a drop of water come out from the taps.
“What is happening here is terrible. You can’t even wash your white clothes because when you wash them they come out brown. We almost drink dirty water with the animals. We can’t do anything but to rely on unclear water sources that had led to a rise in diarrhoea,” said the clique as they push their wheelbarrow to fetch dirty water.
Parent, with five children said she is tired of waking up early to fetch water from the far way boreholes in the area. The scarcity has brought the rich as well as the poor on par. You may have money but that doesn’t mean you have water.
Some residents in the area who were sitting outside the retail said they don’t have choice but to depend solely on these boreholes.
However the health department had many reports making suspicious that due to unclean water people might get sick.
One of the community health worker said they advise the residents to boil borehole water before drinking to prevent other illnesses.
The municipality has promised to put up water tanks supplied by water trucks but deliveries have been erratic
Attempts to reach the Makhuduthamaga municipality water head were unsuccessful.
However on 9th of July 2019 Executive mayor of Sekhukhune district municipality, Stanley Ramaila has seen on one of the commercial television promising the community to maintain the water crisis in the district. It’s over four year’s government failing to construct infrastructure that would get water to the community.
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