No water for students

The University of Fort Hare fails to supply students with basic services. For the past two-three months students have not been able to access the most basic vital need for survival – water.

In order to bath or cook, students have to collect water from outlets or tanks, which are hardly full. We have to move between residences just to relieve ourselves because student residences have toilets that do not flush.

Many students have contracted serious health problems from dirty toilets, unsanitary conditions and dehydration – all a result of lack of water. Not having water is a strain especially during exams when we are faced with dehydration.

It is extremely frustrating to pay R25,000- R30,000 for accommodation in a place that offers virtually none of the basic day-to-day services required. It is our constitutional right to have access to these basics without having to travel long distances to get water.

It is high time that the university takes this matter seriously and stops using excuses such as that the municipality is busy fixing water pipes around town (when one goes to town there is water which makes us question why we do not).

This letter is written by a fed-up student who has repeatedly written to the SRC and management about this problem without any action being taken, leaving us now in the third month without water.

I would highly appreciate it if the Daily Dispatch could investigate why students are being denied water, an essential basic service.

– Z Zamahlubi, via e-mail