Thousands of lives are in danger as the water supply to Eastern Cape villages runs dry.
Dams at Mbhashe and Mnquma have already dried up, according to Amathole District Municipality spokesperson Nonceba Vuso.
On Thursday, R42-million was released by the provincial rural development and agrarian reform department to help alleviate the crisis. One man has rationed his family of five to only two glasses of water a day each;
A traditional leader said women were at risk of rape due to long distances to collect water;
A water sit-in was held in a municipal office this week;
Food gardens and fields are empty and the state has urged farmers to stop planting; and
Water is being drunk from ditches on roadsides. The ADM’s Nonceba Vuso said in Mbhashe and Mnquma dams supplying several villages had dried up.
Vuso said 100 villages in the Raymond Mhlaba municipality were in crisis as pipes in the Gagutyume water scheme kept bursting. The villages affected were in Middledrift, Alice and Hogsback.
Vuso said: “ADM continues to face the unfathomable threat of losing lives and livestock as water resources become dry.
“As a water services provider the district is coming to terms with the challenge of not being able to fully execute its mandate due to a number of reasons, mainly financial. Council has declared the district a disaster area since 2014. It is our intention to provide our communities with the best service during this difficult time in the form of water tankers. But there is no source from which the institution can extract water.
“We urge all our valuable stakeholders to use water sparingly and adopt internal water-saving and re-use techniques.”
Vuso said ADM had received R1.3m from the national emergency fund last year. “With this amount, we drilled boreholes in Dwesa and Nqabara, and are equipping the boreholes.”
The Dispatch reported on the weekend that Eastern Cape dams were currently at 58%.
Butterworth resident Gcina Xabanisa said the dams in the area had shrivelled to almost nothing. “At first we thought it was just another minor problem so we kept quiet because the water shortages have been going on for some time here.
“The municipality should have informed us.
“This has to also do with negligence on their side.”
He said 30 angry residents staged a sit-in at the ADM offices on Wednesday demanding immediate intervention to the water outage. “We sat there and brought food and mattresses with. We refused to leave until water was restored. Then late in the evening some areas had water but most of our communities remain dry.”
Xabanisa said: “Water is life. We are now forced to get water from the small pools that form in the trenches (culverts) on the side of the roads. We are sharing water with animals. The dams are completely dry. The kids are drinking dirty water with animals. This is making people sick, kids are developing skin rashes. Our lives are at risk.”
Ntsikomzi Ndikinda from Dutywa said farmers were suffering.“ “It is getting worse. We have to buy water for the animals and that is costly. Some farmers are already losing livestock. We no longer till our gardens because we won’t be able to water our plants.”
Elvis Mangcangaza, a community leader in Hamburg, said people were starting to embark on long trips in search of water every day.
“We have to ask people who can afford to buy water to share it just to quench our thirst. I had to walk for 15km to another village just to get 20 litres to drink. Some people are lucky to use their donkeys to carry the water.”
He said he introduced water rules for his family of five. “We use the same bath water for morning and evening and a person drinks two glasses of water a day to stay hydrated. I don’t drink the water sometimes because I am saving it for my children.”
Chief Nosizwe Phoswa from Qhora said the 12 villages were struggling. “We are drinking water with animals and we no longer work our fields.”
Rural development spokesperson Thozi kaManyisana said the R42m would also be used to install weather stations for effective planning.
“Whilst feed is being provided, the department is investing in infrastructure like windmills and boreholes. This includes procurement of water storage tanks and trough units, and de-silting stock water dams.”
She said farmers had been advised not to continue with planting...