While water has been restored to Mint Village ... Ritchie residents claim their taps have been dry for a year

WHILE the water supply has been restored to Mint Village in Kimberley following three days of being without water, residents in Mokwang Street in Motswedimosa are still experiencing dry taps after more than a year.

A 21-year-old man burnt to death in a shack fire in Mokwang Street last week, after residents were unable to extinguish the blaze as they had no running water.

Bulelane Ntunuka, 21, died after a fire broke out in his shack in Mokwang Street. He will be buried tomorrow.

Residents blamed the Sol Plaatje Municipality for Ntunuka’s death, saying that he could have been saved if they had access to running water to extinguish the fire.

They said that the entire street, which has about 20 houses, has been without water for more than a year, with the municipality giving no reasons for the water cuts and dry taps.

One 2 500 litre JoJo tank services all the households in the street, where about 40 families live.

However, the tank, which is filled once or twice a week by the municipality, often runs dry, leaving residents without water for drinking, cooking, laundry, bathing and to flush toilets.

Residents yesterday indicated that while a community meeting had been held and representatives from the municipality had visited the street, they had received no feedback from the municipality.

Reliant

They were yesterday still without running water and reliant on the JoJo tank for all their water needs.

Municipal spokesperson, Thoko Riet, yesterday confirmed that the municipality was addressing the situation, with excavators being sent out yesterday to dig up water pipes in an attempt to “find out what the problem is”.

“We suspect that there is a broken valve in the system but we don’t want to speculate and will await results from the excavations to determine the root of the problem,” Riet said.

Meanwhile, Mokwang Street residents said they were fed up with the municipality’s empty promises.

“We have been living without running water for more than a year now … we have lost hope that the municipality will do anything about it. We will only believe their promises when we see running water in our taps again,” one resident said.