The Democratic Alliance (DA) today submitted a petition to the Northern Cape Premier, Dr Zamani Saul, calling for an intervention into yet another municipal water crisis, this time in Kai Garib!. This comes as residents of Marchand are becoming fed up with the daily water cuts that they have to endure, without any end in sight.

Residents are only granted three opportunities to tap water each day in order to fill their containers. The water pressure, however, is so weak that by the time the water goes off again, they have not even managed to replenish their stores.

The situation is dire and is felt by the whole community of Marchand, including its clinics and schools.

While the DA has complained and sought assistance from the councillor, the acting municipal manager and the Speaker, they repeatedly give us the cold shoulder, or an unsatisfactory answer. They especially like to explain that water usage in summer months drastically increases, or that the water shortages are due to an influx of people into Marchand. These are blatant lies. Newcomers to Marchand are not even being connected to the water system and have to make use of the local JoJo tanks instead. Also, while the water system previously functioned as a prepaid service, the payment system is now also faulty and in effect no one is paying for water.

An oversight inspection of the water system has in the meantime revealed the truth.

There is only a single pump pumping water to the reservoir and after pumping for a certain amount of time, the pump automatically switches off to allow the pump to cool down. That means that the storage dam is never actually full.

While the municipality makes use of water trucks to try and mitigate the situation, by ferrying water to residents, this is also not working, as the municipal fleet is in a poor condition. This system is also not economically viable nor sustainable.

The real solution to Marchand’s water challenges is simply to procure an additional pump or pumps that have adequate capacity to pump sufficient water to the storage dam, to be able to provide all residents with an uninterrupted water supply.

While there was a so-called water upgrade project valued at R10 million, it is failing to deliver results to the community. At the same time, no one knows what the R13 million worth of funds redirected towards Covid-19, was actually spent on.

It is high time that the Premier must institute an intervention into the Marchand water crisis.

It is unacceptable that residents have to unnecessarily suffer without water during the time of Covid-19, while municipal funds that could long ago have solved the town’s water problems, remain unaccounted for.

 

Issued by The DA