WUC blames council for water crisis in Borolong

GALE NGAKANE
Correspondent | Wednesday February 17, 2010 00:00

A high-powered Monday meeting addressed by an initially apprehensive Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) Deputy Chief Executive, Godfrey Mudanga at the Borolong kgotla to brief residents, failed to come up with a solution and it appears the residents will have to make do with brackish water from the river despite its dire consequences.

Monday this week marked the beginning of the third week since taps in the village went dry and in the morning of the day, residents could be seen walking about the village with pails and plastic containers that are now a common sight in the village.

Others who had failed to coax trickles from taps could be seen heading for the riverbanks.

'Just what has become of this place? Before we used to have problems with water, but it did not take so long,' said a woman who was going down stream.

A woman, who attended the poorly advertised meeting, lamented that her children aged two and three were now suffering from diarrhoea after drinking brackish water from the river.

'Please help me. When I heard about this meeting, I decided to come here first instead of going to the clinic as I was hoping you were here to end our suffering.

'I haven't had water for the past two weeks and we have been depending on water from the river. But my children have started to fall sick with diarrhoea,' the woman, who said her name was Goitsemodimo Silver, cried in a faltering voice.

Another resident was blunt with his comments.'You people have failed. It is two weeks now since there was water in this village. People who have water system toilets in their homes have to do with flushing the toilets using buckets.

'There are flies all over and possibilities of diseases cannot be discounted. I want to find water at my place this very day, otherwise you should kiss your jobs goodbye,' said the elderly man.

Another resident, former councillor, David Tshosa said he shuddered to think of the river water that residents are now forced to resort to because the taps have run dry.

'There are cemeteries all over this place, especially along the river banks. Obviously, the remains of dead people are seeping into the riverbed and people now have to drink the water. This is a serious matter,' said Tshosa.

Earlier Mudanga, who explained to Borolong residents about Water Sector Reforms that have been instituted by government, said Borolong had been omitted by mistake when 52 villages were taken over by WUC from local authorities on February 1.

He said it was the second phase of the pilot project that will eventually cover about 529 villages. In September they are to take over a further 90 villages.

'We are really sorry. What has been happening is that we never expected this. We had hoped things would run smoothly when we took over,' said a browbeaten Mudanga who however said council was to blame.

He said the council (the Central District Council) was to blame for the problem because they did not hand over equipment for servicing water pumps and even keys to some places that were to be used by WUC personnel after the take over.

'In some places, we found that water pumps were not functioning. Some valves in the system were not working, we do not know who did that and who to turn to.

'Before the take over, there should have been meetings, and then we should have been handed keys, tanks and even trucks they were using so that by February 1, everything would be running smoothly.

'Instead, none of these things were done.  I also got to know that the telemeters, which gauge the level of water in the tanks, were damaged. So, for our people to know the level of water, they have to climb up and use a torch to check the water level,' said Mudanga.

Obviously, having digested the situation as resident after resident told of their miseries Mudanga said:'I have done the right thing to come here. The situation looks really serious.'

Asked whether they were thinking of providing bowzers as a contingency measure, Mudanga said they never had a programme for them because they never thought they could experience a problem of that magnitude.

'We have always had everything at our disposal. We have always thought we would not need bowzers,' he said.

Later, after the meeting, Mudanga, who had told people of his earlier apprehension, said they were going to look into the issue of bowzers as a matter of urgency.

'But you do realise that we have nothing to do with this problem,' he said.

Borolong councillor, Jabulani Vuke and Assistant Council Secretary were not present at the gathering as they were attending another meeting in Serowe.