Residents of Kestell, in the eastern Free State, say the water crisis in the area is worsening. Some parts of the small farming town have been without water for more than 10 years now.
Kestell forms part of the troubled Maluti-A-Phofung Municipality. The town’s water woes date back to 2010. Nkamoheng Lengoabala has seen it all and says she’s tired of empty promises.
“Sometimes we go to the ward councillor to ask her to assist then she would call the water trucks to find out where they are. She will be told that the trucks are in QwaQwa, which is a large area. They have promised to install a pipe for us from the reservoir to supply us with water but so far, it has been an empty promise. I have been living here for 10 years and water has always been a problem,” says Lengoabala.
The water shortage is compounded by a lack of infrastructure maintenance. Even if a pipeline was to be installed, the multi-million rand reservoir first has to be repaired. When water trucks fail to arrive, the community relies on the nearby farms for water.
“We are suffering, when we go home we don’t have water to wash and to cook. Children are also suffering when they have to go to school,” says one resident.
“We hurt because of this issue of water in Kestell. The water we get from trucks is not enough. I arrived in 2007 to date there’s still no water,” adds another.
“For us to get water, we go to streams and dams to collect water there. That water is not clean and we are falling sick because of it,” elaborates another community member.
Maluti-A-Phofung was supposed to pump water from the Sterkfontein Dam to the Escol Reservoir. The water flow would eventually be divided evenly to reach Kestell and the nearby areas.
Government blames an unreliable power supply for acute water shortages in the area.
“We have had power outages in January and February and these numerous power outages have cost us not to be able to provide water in an uninterrupted way and every time we have a power outage it becomes difficult for us to pump water for communities. So, we are devising means to get a generator so that at least when we have a power failure, the generator is able to kick in and pump water. We wish to apologise for this inconvenience,” says Free State Cooperative Governance MEC, Thembeni Nxangisa.
A meeting between officials of Maluti-A-Phofung and the Department of Cooperative Governance is scheduled for Tuesday to discuss water challenges in the area.
Government says it will cost more than R2 billion to resolve the water crisis in Maluti-A-Phofung.
