Protest over lack of water

Irate Hillside township residents in Cradock barricaded roads with burning tyres, demanding water from the Chris Hani District Municipality after more than two months without the natural resource.

The residents blocked the Tarkastad road entering Cradock with burning tyres on Wednesday morning, demanding answers on why they had spent months without water.

One of the residents, Romeo Smith, said the area had been without water for three months, with no communication from the municipality.

“Today, after waiting for more than three months, the community went to demand water from the councillor, Cycilia Diamond, who tried explaining but that angered the community,” he said.

He vowed that residents would continue protesting until the water supply was back.

“The situation in Hillside is bad, you get people who are bedridden and sick who need the water [to bathe] and to drink their pills,” he said.

Inxuba Yethemba Municipality DA councillor Bettie Lawens said: “There are areas which have been without water for three months in Hillside, like the upper side of Hillside.

“That area is always affected by shortage of water especially when dam levels are low.”

Lawens said the municipality needed to upgrade its pipes and infrastructure to accommodate the people of Cradock.

“There are two tanks in the area but they were last filled with water in October. It is extremely hot in Cradock and people can’t stay without water for a long time,” she said.

Chris Hani District Municipality spokesperson Thobeka Mqamelo had not responded to questions sent to him by the time of writing.

However, on its Facebook page, the district authority stated that load shedding by Eskom had brought a challenge to its water provision.

“Pump stations and water treatment works experience hours of inactivity due to the outage,” the post read.