No sight for clean drinkable water in Leeuwfontein

Leeuwfontein

The struggle to access clean potable water continues to upset residents of Leeuwfontein Township and New Stand in Ephraim Mogale Local Municipality.

This is despite that Sekhukhune District Municipality (SDM), has last year, made a promise to residents that they were capacitating the Flag Boshielo Dam treatment plant to alleviate water scarcity in the area within a few months.

According to residents, shortage of water that causing health problems has become a daily occurrence, because they have been drinking unclean water for the past five years.

Residents say they opt to buy water from those who own boreholes or turn to the nearest rivers and wells to fetch drinking water.

A community member, who did not want to be named, said vulnerable community members are subjected to draw dirty smelly water because they do not have money to can buy water.

“If we want clean water, we have to pay for it from people who owns boreholes. However, some of us could not afford to pay for water every day and urged to go to the river to get drinking water. This is painful because the same dirty water is used by children and the elderly,” she said.

She said attempts to get clean drinkable water from SDM bore no fruits all these years.

“Municipality officials came many times to make promises but none of them materialized. We used to drink this dirty water because we do not have other options. We are worried that the Flag Boshielo Dam is just a stone throw away from our area but could not supply us with water,” she said.

DA Councillor in Ephraim Mogale Local Municipality, Flip Jacobs, said the party has raised the community concerns for water during the State of the Municipality Address (SOMA) debate.

“All the while, people in the area have not seen running water for years. Some still have to draw water from holes in the ground with the goats and cattle, nothing has changed,” he said.

SDM Communications Manager, Khomotso Ndlovu, said the district municipality has allocated a budget of R1 Million for a feasibility study for water and sanitation in the 2022/2023 financial year.

“Due to the illegal connections on the main pipeline, there is water shortage to can reach all residents of Leeuwfontein,” he said.

Ndlovu said the municipality in the meantime, is using the tinkering system to provide water to affected residents.

 

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