Khayelitsha residents connect own taps
AFTER living for four months with no taps for hundreds of people, residents of Siyahlala informal settlement in Phase 3 Khayelitsha came up with their own solution and connected their own taps to the water supply.
The community leader, Noxolo Sam said they could not ask the City of Cape Town to give them taps while they were being evicted periodically by law enforcement officers who destroyed their shacks.
“The community meeting in May came up with the solution to install water taps. We saw our people suffering to get access to water,” said Sam.
Community member Phakamile Sonamzi said: “Water is the source of life, we cannot live with out water, that is why I supported this initiative. When a fire breaks out we need to have water to extinguish the fire.
“We contributed R100, and R400 for every new person residing in our informal dwelling. Now we need to sort out the issue of electricity and toilets in our informal houses,” he said.
Residents helped one another with spades to dig trenches for the installation of pipes and taps. The pipes are connected to the water pipes at the Phase 3 toilets.
Another community member, Neliswa Luthando said: “I struggled a lot when I had to wake up in the morning to fetch water to bath my children for school. We have managed to install eight water taps so far, as the community.”
Ntombozuko Vena, who was doing her laundry, was happy about the initiative, saying living without water was hard.
Mayoral committee member for informal settlements, water and waste services councillor Xanthea Limberg, said: “These actions are against the water by-law. These illegal actions also amount to theft of water and place the water supply of the whole community at risk. The provision of services on this land was not planned and is therefore not included in the City’s current budget or resource allocation.
“The City will continue to act to prevent the illegal occupation of land and to direct available resources into new housing opportunities for those on the waiting list, and the provision of services for existing settlements…
“More than R850 million has been earmarked for the provision of services and upgrading of existing informal settlements across Cape Town.”
WATER IS THE SOURCE OF LIFE… WHEN A FIRE BREAKS OUT WE NEED TO HAVE WATER TO EXTINGUISH THE FIRE