The Democratic Alliance (DA) will write to the Nkomazi Municipal Manager (MM), Ben Ngwenya, to request a detailed and feasible water plan for the municipality.
It has been three weeks since the residents of Nkomazi municipality last saw a drop of water out of their taps and have now had to resort to utilising rain water puddles for domestic use.
This is dehumanising and the MM must act immediately to formulate a detailed water plan.
It cannot be that families and their children in Schoemansdal, Jeppes Reef, Busselspruit and Lanageloop have to use rain water puddles on the street for drinking, bathing and cooking (see picture here).
It seems as though the municipality has no idea or plan to rectify this problem. On several occasions the DA has made contact with the municipality’s Senior Water Superintendent, Mandla Mashabela, asking why the municipality taps are dry.
One of the reasons given was that the water reservoir is dysfunctional and is pumping mud to a point that the water in not safe for human consumption.
Residents of Nkomazi are situated in one of the poorest municipalities in Mpumalanga. The luxury of buying bottled water is not viable as a huge portion of this community is unemployed and the elderly rely on government grants to survive.
We need to know what steps has the municipality has taken to resolve the current water crises. Access to water is a human right, and as a last resort, residents who can afford it, are buying and filling up Jojo tanks in their yards.
Furthermore, water is a basic need and is crucial, particularly during the pandemic, in order to comply with Covid-19 regulations.
The people of this community deserve better services and we will write to the municipality to request an outlined plan to fix the water crises in this municipality.
The citizens of Nkomazi deserve better services, especially as schools reopen next week. The residents of Nkomazi need clean and drinkable water now.