Villagers drink from Shashe River in water crisis

KEABETSWE NEWEL
Correspondent | Friday September 24, 2010 00:00

Chadibe village headman Aaron Nyambe said in the past two days people have been forced to fetch water from the river for their needs.

'Our village has dried up, neither do we drink water or bath. We only see Water Utilities vehicles driving around the village leaving clouds of dust behind them but I cannot tell you what they are doing here since they never communicate with us,' the unhappy chief fumed.He said since the water crisis residents have had to make do as best as they can under very difficult circumstances. 'Most people in the village have water connections into their homes, they use indoor toilets but without water the toilets are useless. You can imagine what the situation would be like,' Nyambe said.

Lillian Nyambe, the chief's wife said that the water condition is making them suffer. 'It is a disaster, we sometimes fetch water at around 2am, which also gets cut off at any moment,' she said.

She said that if they are lucky the water will drip from the taps for a few hours, which she said normally happens at odd hours of the night and very early in the morning when people are still sleeping. The chief's wife said in situations where there is absolutely no dripping from the taps, they are forced to trudge the long distance to the Shashe River bed to fetch water, which they lug in heavy containers using wheelbarrows.

Late last year the two villages of Chadibe and Borolong went for three weeks without water and the problem was attributed to change of responsibility from the Tonota Sub district to the Water Utilities Corporation. (WUC). The sub-district handed over the water reticulation to the corporation.

'I do not dispute the fact that emergencies always happen, but it is surprising for Water Utilities to never inform us of any problem they are having in advance,' lamented the chief.

In his opinion, it all began after WUC took over responsibility from Water Affairs, but he said while the water cuts also occurred before the change over, at least they were informed beforehand so that the villagers were better prepared.

Dikatso Raditsebe, headman of Jojo Masomo ward said he has not bathed or cooked food for two days and has no idea when the problem is likely to end.

'We had an agreement with the government to stop drinking water from the river since it is unhealthy, but now we are forced to drink it,' said Raditsebe.

According to Raditsebe, the people are now using the bush to relieve themselves instead of their toilets since there is no water to flush them.

'The water department does not even communicate with us but their vehicle as you can see roams the streets,' Raditsebe said pointing to a speeding WUC vehicle passing by.

Another headman at Bototela ward, Samson Maramane, showed Mmegi his dried-up water tap. Maramane described the situation as intolerable. The headman said that ever since the take-over by WUC, they have not been allowed to pay their bills. 'We still remain puzzled as to how much we will be expected to pay for a bill that has not been settled since the beginning of the year,' commented Maramane.

Water works engineer at WUC, Taita Tlhabologang, admitted that he was aware of the situation affecting the village. But he said that the main cause of the problem was the recent power cuts in Francistown.

'We are putting initiatives in place to solve this problem. We have arranged for water bowzers to supply the village with water very soon,' said Tlhabologang. He said that their loudspeaker is still in use at Selebi-Phikwe and was one of the reasons for the inconvenience.

' We are also planning to get cell numbers from the headmen so we can tell them of emergencies first hand,' said Tlhabologang.

Although the villagers deny any form of communication from WUC, Tlhabologang said he informed the constituency councillor Jabulani Vuke about the situation.

Vuke in turn said he was unable to address the villagers on the matter as he was still at a council meeting in Serowe. 'I was informed of that problem on Monday but I managed to meet the Water Utilities people and we reached an agreement to supply the village with water using bowzers,' said Vuke.