Endless battle of drinkable water in Ephraim Mogale villages

Ephraim Mogale

Residents of villages in Ephraim Mogale Local Municipality (EPMLM) say they will be calling the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu, to come and address their long-standing water shortages battles in the area.

The communities, leading by Batho Pele Development Forum and Sekhukhune Lepelle Development Forum, which seeks to raise water scarcity concerns in EPMLM villages, claim they have been surviving on river and stream water for a long time, despite millions of rands budgeted for water provision by the Sekhukhune District Municipality (SDM).

Kgobise Setlamorago, Batho Pele Development Forum Chairperson, said as winter approaches, they are worried because rivers and wells have dried up, leaving them with no other sources of water in the area.

“The situation is becoming worse because it is no longer raining these day. The water level is very low and leaving rivers and wells dried up,” he said.

According to Setlamorago, the district municipality installed water storage tanks promising to provide drinkable water through water tanker trucks, which were left dry since they were installed about two years ago.

“We are tired of this situation, we want the minister to come and address our water shortages issues as the district municipality failed us,” he said.

In March 2023, the forum marched to deliver their memorandum to SDM officials at the Flag Boshielo Water Purification Plant in Phetwane Village.

The forum demanded water authority to be given back to local municipalities and Lepelle Northern Water (LNW), citing that SDM has failed to supply them with drinkable water since taking over in 2010.

The forum furthered demanded water personnel to be stationed at all reservoirs and develop a time table that will be notifying with water reticulation in all villages.

They had also called upon SDM to cooperate with other stakeholders such as the local municipality and LNW for speeding up permanent solutions to their water problem.

In response to their grievances, the Executive Mayor of SDM, Cllr Maleke Mokganyetji, wrote a letter to the forum, stating that the process of devolution of power has been resume at SDM by circulating a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), to all the local municipalities for their input.

Mokganyetji indicated that it must also be mentioned that SDM has already resumed the process of section 78, whereby a study is being done on finding a permanent solution on devolution of power to the local municipalities.

The executive mayor committed that SDM leadership will try by all means to avail themselves when called upon on various legitimate community forums.

Mokganyetji informed that the district municipality has taken a decision to move all cluster managers from the head office to the station in all different clusters so as to respond probably to the water challenges in those clusters, as part of SDM’s drive to meet all water challenges that are experienced by communities.

She said the current SDM organogram has no vacancy on pump operators due to budgetary constraints, however, the proposal will be sent to council during budget processes.

Mogale Matsekoleng, Sekhukhune Lepelle Development Forum Chairperson, said they were not satisfied with Mokgayetji’s response.

“We are not happy because the executive mayor’s response is not directly addressing our water challenges we are facing currently, it instead, suggests a long-term solutions,” he said.

Matsekoleng said they will be approaching the district municipality to try and get short-term water shortages solutions while waiting for permanent ones.