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The residents of Hillside in Cradock have been left high and dry without a single drop of water flowing from their taps over the past eight months. And to make matters worse, only one of the four JoJo water tanks placed in the area by the Chris Hani District Municipality (CHDM) is in working order.

Cradock is situated in the Inxuba Yethemba Municipality (IYM), but the CHDM is responsible for the provision of water and sanitation services to this local municipality.

Many of the people of Hillside are forced to walk long distances to collect water from two tanker trucks that are available daily, as well as the one operational JoJo tank. The remaining three JoJo tanks are empty and are not in use due to damaged taps and fittings.

According to the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa every person has the right to access to sufficient water. The residents of Hillside are being denied this fundamental right and I have, therefore, written to the EC MEC for COGTA, Zolile Williams, to request his urgent intervention.

Extended water outages have plagued Cradock for years and the CHDM has proven that it is incapable of fulfilling its water and sanitation mandate to the IYM, which also includes the town of Middelburg. The DA has in the past argued that the CHDM be forced to relinquish the water and sanitation competency, but to no avail.

The Democratic Alliance is deeply concerned that the prolonged water outages may lead to a health crisis within the Cradock community and we will take this matter up with the National Minister of COGTA and the South African Human Rights Commission if MEC Williams does not act swiftly to address the issue.

Water is life, and the ongoing water outages in Cradock are a serious and unacceptable violation of the basic human rights of the affected residents.

The DA is committed to fight for a clean and healthy environment to ensure that the people of Cradock are not left to suffer due to incompetency and failing infrastructure.

Issued by Heinrich Muller MPL - EC Midlands Constituency Leader