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It has taken Kai !Garib municipality over a month to restore water supply to the desperate community of Vredesvalley, with an ordinary electric cable that could have been procured at any hardware store.

In all this time, desperate residents were walking almost four kilometres in total every day, with their wheelbarrows, to collect raw water from the river. This was due to the municipality only supplying one operational tanker to refill two tanks, every other day, leaving half of the community without clean drinking water.

During an oversight inspection to the area last week to check on the situation, the DA found that although water supply had been restored, the workmanship was appalling.

We were especially shocked to note that, while the municipality claimed to be waiting for cables for more than five weeks, they eventually restored the electricity to the pump station with an ordinary electricity cable. The cable is lying exposed, on top of the ground, posing a serious threat to the community.

In addition to this, we found that one of the dams providing water to the community has been empty for at least six weeks. It was rusty, with holes in it, and dead birds and small animals trapped in the mud.

The community has made several requests to the municipality for the dam to be cleaned and repaired, to no avail.

The situation exposes an uncaring Kai !Garib municipality.

Had the municipality opted to act sooner with this temporary, but unsafe interim measure, they could have spared the community a lot of discomfort and also eradicated the health risks that accompany the use of raw river water.

The DA is putting pressure on Kai !Garib municipality to urgently institute safety measures to protect the community from the exposed cables and to institute a permanent intervention. At the same time, we are appealing to the municipality to also prioritise the cleaning and repair work of the dam, to ensure that Vredesvalley has clean water reserves before another crisis hits.

At the very least, Kai !Garib owes the community of Vredesvalley a sustainable supply of clean water, provided to them under safe conditions.

Issued by Priscilla Isaacs, MPL - Constituency Head of Benede Oranje