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The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape has requested the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) to investigate Kai !Garib municipality’s dire lack of water management in Kakamas.

This comes as muddy water, often smelly and sometimes contaminated with red worms, continues to flow through residents’ taps, when they are not experiencing regular and unscheduled water cuts that tend to last for up to two days at a time.

This has been aggravated by the municipality’s failure to heed flood warnings relating to rising water levels and to secure the pumps. Hence, a pump was last seen floating down by the bridge in Marchand (see pics here and here).

An amount of R800 000 was set aside in the 2016/2017 financial year for upgrades of the water purification plant, built back in 1980. This was to be utilized for the replacement of the pumps, filters, valves and so forth, in order to improve water quality and to increase the water pressure.

A lack of subsequent maintenance, however, continues to be a big impediment towards ensuring the sustainable provision of clean water to residents. As a result, the purification plant is still not up to standard and the water crisis continues to escalate.

In the meantime, the municipality also makes use of contractors, who are paid vast sums of money, to provide water to the various informal settlements.

The DA is requesting DWS to investigate the water quality, as well as the management of the purification plant and all related infrastructure, in addition to determining whether the municipality has the requisite skills.

We will also ask the Office of the Auditor-General to specifically investigate the use of contractors for water provisioning in Kai !Garib.

We must ensure that residents’ rights to sustainable access to clean water is protected and that money is spent on the maintenance of water infrastructure as opposed to being channeled to businesses that make a quick buck off the municipality’s own incompetence.

Issued by ZF Mgcawu Municipality leader, Nannie Van Zyl, Cllr