While the Butterworth Dam is at its lowest level in years, and taps in the town and its surrounds are dry, it’s only the poor that suffer.
If you can afford it, you can pay people like Similo Mliva and Richard Nobani to bring you water.
They sell water which they get from the municipality’s reservoirs to residents for R600 per 2500-litre tank.
“We are getting the water from the municipality and sell it to those who can afford it. It’s a business to us and we will make better money if this is prolonged,” said Mliva.
Villagers around the town say they have not had water for week, while some say they ran out of water last year.
Residents from suburbs and local townships, such as Mcubakazi, Cuba and Msobomvu, are hardest hit as many don’t have the money to pay to have water carted to their homes, and depend on Amathole District Municipality (ADM) for such services. The municipality will truck water to their communities on a weekly basis.
The dire water situation is threatening the operations of many of the institutions in the area, including Walter Sisulu University and the local hospital.
Health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said the hospital’s reservoir was at 30%, which was equivalent to seven days of water.
“If by next week Wednesday we don’t get any water, the hospital will run out of water. But the hospital is in talks with the municipality and they will get cart water from East London and Mthatha to fill up the hospital reservoir,” Kupelo said.
Speaking to the Daily Dispatch yesterday, residents said they had no hope of the water situation being addressed any time soon.
Nqabodidi Mateni, of Mcubakazi, yesterday told the Dispatch that the only water she was hoping to get was for cooking.
“I’ve never seen this in my adult life. The water crisis is affecting us badly.”
Another resident, Noxolo Tyalimbo, a nurse by profession, worried about disease outbreak.
“We can expect anything and the hospital is also affected by this water crisis. Thousands of students are also badly affected and they are relieving themselves in the bushes,” Tyalimbo said.
WSU spokeswoman Yonela Tukwayo confirmed that the water crisis in Mnquma was affecting them.
“We are seriously impacted by this water crisis. We have 6500 people on campus every day and we need water for ablution facilities, as well as cooking and drinking,” Tukwayo said.
ADM commented on Twitter that the drought had taken a turn for the worse in Mnquma local municipality.
“ADM is currently doubling its efforts to bring water to all affected communities,” it tweeted.
Yesterday, the Daily Dispatch team visited a number of areas in the town, including the Gcuwa Dam, which was seen to be at its lowest level in years.
At WSU’s Ibika campus, students were collecting water from nearby streams to use for washing. At Zazulwana village, about five students were seen washing their clothing along the river stream.
Speaking to the Daily Dispatch, student Vuyo Ndava said: “In June last year it was the same thing and when we came back from mid-year holidays, we expected a change but there was nothing.”
Ndava said at least last year the water had returned to their taps from time to time.
Zizipho Jam Jam said the crisis needed university intervention while Sibulele Jaza said they were told that after rains, the water problems would be over.
“But there’s no water anywhere in Butterworth. The problem to me is infrastructure more than anything else.”
A number of businesses in the Butterworth CBD have been affected by this, with some saying they wanted to close.
“ I won’t lie, we are losing money. We are planning to move to the better-run cities than this chaotic Mnquma local municipality. If Amathole can cart water to people, why can’t they pipe water to others?” asked Mohamed Ibrahim, a businessman who runs a restaurant in town.
Attempts were made to get comment from ADM but they had not responded by the time of going to print. — bonganif@dispatch.co.za