Some residents in the Vhembe District in Limpopo are concerned about abandoned and incomplete bulk water projects in their area.
Residents in Tshino in Vuwani, Ha-Nthabalala and Ha-Mulima near Elim say they have been without water in their villages despite the more than R150 million bulk water projects in their villages.
Progress has come to a halt at the water projects.
The projects that are not yet providing water to communities include a R25 million project at Ha-Nthabalala, two projects at Tshino at a cost of 34 and 60 million rand respectively, a R37 million project at Vuwani Manavhela and another one at Vyeboom Masia which cost R20 million.
South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) Secretary at Tshino, Titus Nemaungani says, “The two constructed reservoirs that are supposed to draw water from nearby dams are currently not working.”
Nemaungani says street water pipes, which were part of the bulk water supply in the area, are lying idle. He says the multi-million rand water projects at Tshino were started in 2018 and 2020 respectively. He says the community is suffering because of lack of water.
“The first one which was situated at Ndiitwani the amount was R34-million. The second one all of them the money as we calculated was R64-million. We feel pain and we feel that government does not care about us even the municipality of Vhembe,” says Nemaungani.
The traditional leader at Ha-Nthabalala, Chief Patrick Magobo says a borehole in their area has been locked by the contractor over a pay dispute between the contractor and the municipality. He says the locked borehole has enough water to service the community, but the water is not reaching them because of the dispute..
Magobo says, “We have boreholes with a lot of water and also a dam which was constructed in 2005 but it is not supplying water and we are unable to get water.”
One of the residents at Ha-Nthabalala, Selina Maduwa says they are concerned about the abandoned water projects in their area.
Maduwa says the government spent a lot of money on the projects but they are not benefiting the community. She says they buy water from residents who have private boreholes.
“We don’t have water but there are boreholes in our village, money was spent but there is no water.”
The Vhembe District municipality was not available for comment.
