Town at war over water

Racial tensions rise in Vryheid as whites chased from collection point

IN Vryheid, in northern KwaZulu-Natal, water is so valuable that people are having fist fights over it. In this town of 211 000, the story is playing out of how things fall apart when the water dries up. Parts of South Africa wilt under a crippling drought, the story Vryheid has to tell is not pretty.

It is splitting the town apart. Some have taken to calling it “Vryheid sonder water” (Freedom without water).

Zama Xulu, who lives in Bhekuzulu township, about 10 minutes’ walk from Vryheid’s town centre, wakes up at 4am three times a week to collect water supplied in tanks by the Aba-Qulusi Municipality. She has witnessed the fights. “People fight because the water the trucks bring is not enough for everyone,” Xulu said.

Klipfontein Dam, which is the main source of water for the town, is at 23% of capacity and below pumping level. Last year, it went as low as 11%.

The town has had to rely on the Grootgewagt Dam, which is 69% full, but it is only a quarter of the size of the Klipfontein Dam.

The municipality’s acting manager of water and sanitation, Dave Drysdale, said the water in the Grootgewagt Dam would not be sufficient to carry the town through winter.

The scarcity of water has also fuelled the flames of racial tensions.

The 8 000 mainly black people in Bhekuzulu rely on two water tankers for their water.

They look to the mainly white Vryheid town and its suburbs, where municipal drinking water is just as scarce.

But most of these areas have water tanks and boreholes, so it does not look as bad.

The tanks, supplied by the municipality, can be found at 15 water collection stations across the town.

“People don’t fully appreciate the severity of the water crisis and we have gone to the police to lay complaints about car washes at the water stations, but we are told it’s free enterprise,” resident Louette Gove said.

Guesthouse owner Rita Johnston said the municipality did not implement water restrictions and, suddenly overnight, the taps ran dry.

Hairdresser Marchelle Slabbert has resorted to collecting rainwater which she stores in a blow-up Jacuzzi in her living room.

“I often ask my clients to collect the rainwater in containers and bring it with them because the water we get from the points creates itchy scalps and discolours their hair,” she said.

More than 550 cases of diarrhoea are being treated at the Bhekuzulu clinic every month.

Cindy Mbatha, who works as a domestic worker, said: “We get sick from drinking this water and we also don’t have a lot of clean and safe places to store the water.

A nurse at the clinic, who asked not to be named, said: “Adults and children come to the clinic suffering from diarrhoea and dehydration because of the quality of water.”

But, for some, the water economy is booming. Residents are paying up to R500 for 5 000 litres to be delivered to their homes in the town.

But since not everyone can afford to get water delivered, supermarket trolleys have been disappearing by the hundreds. People are using them to ferry water from points in the town to the townships.

Bhekuzulu residents have even resorted to hiring bakkies at R150 a trip to take them from the township to Vryheid to do their weekly washing at water supply points in the town.

Nico Slabbert, who collects water daily, said white people were being chased away from some collection points by black residents from Vryheid and neighbouring townships.

“I tried to fill the tank on my bakkie and I was chased away by some of the black people who were at the water point,” he said.

“They said that filling station was not for white people.”

Meanwhile, Cape Town’s overall dam levels are at 42%, with four of the municipality’s six dams below 50%.