Picture: Water system allegedly vandalized by community members/Facebook
By OBAKENG MAJE
Some residents allegedly vandalised the water supply infrastructure in Vryburg. The Naledi Local Municipality mayor, Cooper Groep said the recurring ‘acts of sabotage’ continue to hamper the municipality’s ability to supply adequate water to the people of Naledi.
“The residents deliberately sabotaged and vandalised the water supply infrastructure. So, we hereby notify the community about the above-mentioned matter.
“As previously indicated on a publication, the information communicated on this platform seems to give the perpetrators a map to the municipality’s pursuits and success in relations to operations,” Groep said.
He further said, just last week, the municipality had successfully refurbished all the boreholes. Groep added, yet again, some individuals have gone on to totally annihilate the Swartfontein transformer resulting in a loss of all the pumps in the said precinct.
“It is against the aforementioned that Vryburg town, Kismet, Colridge, Huhudi and the Extensions are experiencing a lack of water supply. The community members are encouraged to report any suspicious activities witnessed,” he said.
Recently, the residents of Vryburg embarked on protests demanding water. They also accused some government officials of corruption. It is alleged that some government officials closed the valves of reservoirs so that water tankering systems can be put in use.
It is alleged that the municipality spends over R2 million every month on the water tankering system.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu said, his department has prioritised communities with critical water shortages in the province.
“The North West Provincial Steering Committee has received an assessment report on the state of water and sanitation service provision in the province and has instructed the Committee’s Technical Task Team to start prioritising critical projects that will ensure immediate restoration of water in areas with existing infrastructure in the province.
“The assessment report was tabled to the Steering Committee attended by the co-chair, North West Premier, Bushy Maape, Deputy Minister David Mahlobo, executive mayors from both district and local municipalities, the Magalies Water Board, traditional leaders and community leaders from various municipalities in the province,” he said.
According to Mchunu, the report has painted a clear picture that the province has enough sources of water, both on surface and groundwater to support domestic and other users, however huge infrastructural challenges in various parts of the province impeded the resource to be transferred to the users.
He said, most of the challenges identified stemmed from lack of capacity, skills and budget to carry out operations and maintenance, illegal connections, incomplete projects and infrastructure vandalism in the Water Service Authorities (WSAs) and municipalities’ reticulation systems.
“The task team will now start the process of prioritising projects for immediate interventions and get commitments from all role-players to enable the work to go ahead as we need to pump water to the people and put this water crisis in the North West behind us.
“There is extensive work lying ahead, and this collaborative process will enable our plans to take off with speed to restore water and sanitation services in the province. The task team should be able to provide us with this roadmap soon,” said Mchunu.
The Guardian 