Cradock, Middelburg children becoming ill

The water crisis in the Inxuba Yethemba municipality is deepening, with boreholes that service the communities of Middelburg and Cradock drying up, the MEC for co-operative governance Fikile Xasa said.

This comes as residents threaten more protests in the wake of the crisis. Last week residents from Hillside in Cradock marched to councillor Cycilia Diamond’s home and burned tyres outside her gates, demanding an explanation for the water shortage.

Community members say they have been without proper drinking water for three months.

“The only way we can get attention is to toyi-toyi and force government to listen to us, because the Jojos they provide are not enough. We drink infected water. Our children are getting sick because the water we source is not purified.

“What makes us angry is that the municipality does not come back to us,” Sanco member Masiza Mahala said.

Xasa said boreholes were drilled to below the level of water supply. He said the municipality partnered with provincial government to working on interventions to mitigate the situation.

“What they have done as an intervention is to divert water from reservoir directly to water pipes because people are becoming impatient. This will be done with money allocated for drought intervention.”

In 2016, Cogta set aside R10m for drought interventions for the province.

Xasa said it was difficult to access water in Hillside because the area was on a hilltop. Water could only be supplied to the area by Jojo tanks, he said.

DA constituency head MPL Kobus Botha said delivery of water tanks to the Middelburg area was a matter of urgency.

Botha said as part of government’s intervention to the growing problems, a pipeline needed to be created from the Gariep Dam.

The only way we can get attention is to toyi-toyi and force government to listen, because the Jojos they provide are not enough