The community of Hammans-kraal is mad at the government as they continue to suffer from poor water supply, which has resulted in a cholera outbreak, a disease that has so far claimed 21 lives – including a three-year-old child.
And the enraged residents are demanding that government put an end to the pain they have endured for many years, and expressed outrage that the water tanker, which is meant to supply them with water, only does so once a week.
The area, which is in the north of Pretoria, has been without clean water for over a decade and the outbreak of cholera could claim more lives if there is no immediate intervention, residents said.
When Sunday World visited a small township of Temba during the week, residents expressed their devastation.
Koketso Maile said their anger was directed towards the government because the tanker that was supposed to bring them water once a week, delivers water to other areas other than their own.
“We are often left with no water, so we buy it because sometimes they deliver the water when we are at work. That is an additional expense. If we are lucky and around, we
always must run after the tanker as not all areas are accommodated,” said Maile.
Maile added that loadshedding was an added burden and did not make things easier for the residents who are unable to boil water due to power outages.
Tidimalo Magoba said they only use tap water for their laundry and buy drinking water because the residents do not trust the quality of the water.
“We don’t even know what to do with this water, it smells and has a greenish colour. As it is, the hospital is full because people have been admitted in hospital for cholera. Perhaps the government will give us an ear now that there are dead people.
“It does not matter how many times we protest, nothing changes,” said a fed-up Magoba.
One of the residents, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said one of her friends passed away due to cholera and her two children are in hospital fighting for their lives.
“She was complaining about a stomach ache and was rushed to the hospital on Monday. She unfortunately succumbed to the pain in Jubilee hospital.”
City of Tshwane spokesperson Selby Bokaba has disputed the claims that tankers only deliver water once a week.
“The city has two separate sets of delivery of water tankers to informal and formal areas.
“With formal areas we deliver 44 tankers daily. And with informal areas we used to deliver every day, but we stopped and started to deliver three times a week.
“With the outbreak of cholera last week, we increased our delivery from three times to five times a week, except Thursdays and Sundays,”Bokaba said.
Bokaba said to make sure that residents are supplied with sufficient water, there is water supplied through the Temba waste purification plant that flows out of the taps for purposes of washing, cleaning and toilet use.
“Drinkable water is supplied through the water tankers. It is important to reiterate that residents shouldn’t use tap water for drinking purposes.”
Bokaba emphasised that the water supplied through the tankers is safe to drink, however, if the residents have doubt, they can boil it before drinking.
“Tests have been done on our various water sources such as Magalies Water, Rand Water, water tankers, car washes, Temba Wastewater Treatment Plant, and those results were negative, meaning they were free of cholera.
“The source of the cholera/contamination is yet to be determined. Samples have been taken from other sources as well, and results are yet to be released.”
Bokaba said the delay in funding is the main reason the city is struggling to fix the water issue as well as some form of supply chain management problem.
“We hope to communicate good news next week about funding after the meeting between the city, Rand Water, Magalies Water and the ministry of water and sanitation. Once the funding modalities have been agreed upon, the water issues in Hammanskraal will be permanently resolved,” said Bokaba.
Sunday World tried to get a comment from hospital officials but was told that no media is allowed within the premises.
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