Awerani Mukwevo collects water through open boreholes.
Early every morning, Awelani Mukwevo has to find a way to make sure her family has enough water in Maturi village, Limpopo province. She has to buy it or scoop water in a plastic bottle from the top of an open well pipe near the Taba River.
Ntabarala Tribal Coordinator John Makum said the water shortage was due to only one fully functioning public well in the Ntabarara area near Elim.
Makam now digs his own well and sells the water for R2 per 25 litres.
Ntabarala Water Committee chairman David Maduwa said the single public well in Mfadja village could only provide water for two hours a day, after which it had to be filled again. The water is pumped to a reservoir 2km away and from there piped to the villages of Mpofu, Maduwa and Mpufulenzi. These villages do not have enough water and there are 11 villages in the region that are in need of water.
Maria Mashele, who lives in Mfaja, says she needs about 1,000 liters a week for her family and has to buy water. It costs her R400 a month. She has to use social grants.
“We have to be strict with our children and siblings not to waste water,” Machel said.
Residents claim that the municipality simply sinks a new borehole every time a borehole breaks. Therefore, there are two more boreholes in Mufadja, but one has a broken pipe and is without power. Another borehole, which previously provided sufficient supply, has had a motor failure since 2017, Maduwa said. The community has been struggling with water outages since the breach.
According to Makam, there is a well in Masete village, but the water is dirty. Manima's well broke. There are no boreholes in the villages of Maturi, Makgoba, Munjezi, Ramulmo and Tavanini.
Makamu said he had held several meetings with the Vhembe District Municipality, which is responsible for water supply. When the Taba River borehole sank in 2016, “we were informed that every village would have enough water,” he said. But the well has no power.
Chiphiwa Rajnani of Vakoma Trading Enterprises, a contractor who was busy sinking boreholes and servicing pipes and pumps, told GroundUp that he had not been paid for his work and had dropped his tools. He said it was gone.
“We managed to pay our 10 employees out of pocket for the first three months, but we couldn't continue like this,” Rajnani said.
The borehole was subsequently destroyed.
Vhembe District Municipality Spokesperson Matoj Larshai said the municipality was aware of one borehole that needed repair. He did not answer our questions regarding Rajnani payment.
“We are currently trying to transport water to these villages by tanker,” said Parrot Mashau (ANC), whose ward 18 includes Mpofu, Mfadja and Maduwa villages.
The villagers of Mfadja, Mpofu, Maduwa and Mphulenzi have now decided to drill their own boreholes. There were 240 families and each household contributed R200 a month in February and March. The contractor quoted him R87,000, but the community is looking for a competitive quote.
“We have no choice but to think for ourselves, otherwise we will suffer for a long time hoping that the municipality will fix the well,” Maduwa said.
This article first appeared on GroundUp.