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As Kharkams faces its biggest water crisis yet, the DA is calling on Kamiesberg municipality to immediately initiate the process of having a local disaster declared.

Water challenges in Kharkams have gotten progressively worse and since the start of October, residents only had water in their taps on the 5th, 19th and 29th of October.

Residents have had to make do with limited water delivered by a single municipal water truck, to four tanks in and around Kharkams, only once a week. Due to low dam levels in some of the surrounding towns where the tanker fills up, the truck has had to share its load amongst the tanks, which are therefore never filled. An increasing number of people, who desperately queue for water, do not get their containers filled and are dependent on fellow community members sharing water with them, to help sustain them.

Even livestock farmers are now coming into town to tap water from the municipal tanks to keep their animals alive.

With dams in surrounding towns drying up, the situation has the potential to escalate further.

There is also currently no hope of a sustainable solution in sight. A municipal appointed contractor has drilled three boreholes but has yet to intercept water.

Following a council meeting earlier in the week, it was confirmed that two additional tanks would be set up and that an additional water tanker would have to be sourced, to fill all the tanks, on a two-weekly basis.

Exactly where the water will come from, however, has yet to be determined.

The DA notes that the Mayor is developing a mitigation strategy but, given the municipality’ past lack of foresight and planning to avert Day Zero, the situation calls for a higher-level intervention.

I have submitted a letter to the Speaker of Kharkams, requesting urgent deliberations with the Namaqua district municipality, to secure a disaster declaration. This is essential to access expertise and funding needed to restore adequate water provision in Kamiesberg.

DA Constituency Head, Veronica van Dyk, has also reported the DA’s concerns to the Department of Water and Sanitation and the South African Human Rights Commission.

With not just a town, but a whole region, facing a potentially waterless future, this crisis must be taken seriously.

Issued by Cllr. Charlton Kordom - Kamiesberg municipality