VILLAGERS ’ 10-YEAR BATTLE FOR WATER
Families depend on polluted spring
UNEMPLOYED Suzen Sebopela, of Diphala village in Mashibiring, Limpopo, has no choice but to drink bacteria-contaminated water.
Sebopela has been drinking from the polluted spring for the past 10 years. As the battle to access the precious resource continues, she and her fellow residents feel forsaken.
“The water from the well is dirty, ” Sebopela says. “But what can we do?
“If you are not employed and the little you get from social grants cannot help buy water and food, there is no other way, but to drink this water.” taps on the streets also dried up “some time ago”.
This is why those who can afford to buy water rely on the water traders, while the bereft ones hope for the natural water springs or wells.
“The problem has been going on for more than 10 years,” Sebopela says.
“Even when the taps were installed, they remained useless because there was no water coming out.”
Another unemployed villager, Shibu Mashaba, says he and his
Sebopela and dozens other fellow villagers say they cannot afford to buy water, even when a 20-litre container sells for at least R5.
The well provides more than 500 poor people, but it takes several hours to fill the residents’ 20-litre containers.
Abject poverty is rife though the area is situated in Sekhukhune’s Platinum Belt. Sebopela says they used to have a borehole, but it dried up “a long time ago”.
What ’ s more, the communal family do not drink water from the well, as they buy water from traders.
But he complains: “The water is very expensive though. We spend at least R20 for water that only lasts us for a day or two. So, being unemployed, we just live to buy water.”
Sekhukhune district municipality spokesman Willy Mosoma has confirmed that the area has been facing water shortages, and said that the authorities were working to restore water in the area.