Eastern Cape villagers in water-scare areas feel defenceless against Covid-19

The government has drummed it into people that washing your hands regularly and practising good personal hygiene helps to keep the coronavirus at bay — but this is a tall order for thousands of people in the rural Eastern Cape.

They simply do not have a reliable source of clean running water and are forced to share dirty streams with animals.

This is despite more than 3,000 water tanks being delivered to communities around the province. Water tankers have also been sent in on some days.

However, for many villagers across the province getting to the rivers before the animals do to fetch water is still a daily reality, exposing them to illnesses such as cholera and diarrhoea.

Christopher Masentse, of Wilo village in Mqanduli, lambasted the government for what he said was failure to provide enough water tanks for struggling villages.

“We have been complaining for years that we need clean drinking water. We wash our hands using dirty water from the river because we have no other choice, but how safe is that? We saw tanks being carried to other areas such as Coffee Bay.

“I know that water pipes will take forever to be installed. For now we need water tanks in this village so that people don’t die during this pandemic,” Masentse said.

Nelson Vula, of Gabazi village in Qumbu, said they had to wake up at 4am to fetch water from a nearby river.

“Sometimes the river runs dry. The last drop of water from our taps was in January. We have rashes all over our bodies and who is to say we can’t die if this virus gets to us?

“People might even die of hunger or drinking dirty water rather than from this virus, because only four people benefited from food parcels while many people are destitute in this village,” he said.

Nophumzi Skina, of Ndlambe village in Peddie, said: “We should be cared for not only when they want votes. We have people in our villages who are sick and are not able to fetch water from the rivers.”

Villagers in Makhazi village near East London said water trucks last delivered water here about two weeks ago.

Nontembiso Ndamase, who lives with eight family members, said they they had to use their 200l of water sparingly until water was carted to them again.

“When the truck water runs out, we are forced to get water in the river, where all sorts of animals like pigs and horses drink,” Ndamase said.

Another resident, Ntombilele Zabhunqu, said: “We could easily get this virus because we are dirty and we are drinking dirty water. The government needs to speed up the process so that everyone can have clean water. We don’t even have these sanitisers they speak of.” 

Water and sanitation spokesperson Sputnik Ratau said they were doing their best to deliver water tanks to as many water-scarce areas as possible.

“We are continuing with the delivery. We recognise that we were not going to cover everybody in the kind of time that we are talking about now.

“It's just less than a month since we started this project and we are talking about more than  2,000 communities across the country,” Ratau said.

He said it was worrying that people still did not have water so they could practise good personal hygiene.

“We are concerned that the virus is so quick we may not keep pace with it. But we have to do the best we can, because ultimately it is about reducing the impact of the virus.

“We have to take courage that, as long as we keep providing [tanks], more people will be able to wash their regularly. We are coming to everybody. It will take us a bit of time.” 

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