The Makhado Municipality is to place water tankers at strategic places to alleviate the water shortage in Makhado (Louis Trichardt).

“The process of procuring the water tankers is on and the community can expect to make use of them within three weeks,” municipal spokesperson Louis Bobodi said on 18 March.

The municipal manager, Mr Sakkie Mutshinyali, made the important announcement that he would like to take responsibility to place water tankers at strategic places in town at a water crisis meeting in the show hall on 9 February.  After the meeting, Mutshinyali told the Zoutpansberger that, although water was a function of the Vhembe District Municipality, he would secure funds for the water tankers. Replying to a question where the water tankers would be placed, the technical director, Mr Thivho Ralulimi, said that “that would depend on the needs of the community.”

The Soutpansberg Ratepayers Association submitted a letter to the municipal manager, dated 6 March, in which they proposed locations where water tankers would be needed most. “We at the Ratepayers Association know that the water shortages are not going to be resolved soon and we would like to appeal to the Makhado Municipality to provide water tankers in the following areas where people who, in many instances, don’t have any water, can go to and at least get water for daily use,” wrote Mr Phillip Olivier, SRPA manager. The SRPA suggested seven possible locations. The areas that the Makhado Municipality identified correspond with those that the SRPA proposed.

The areas where strategic water tankers will be placed are the open space opposite OK Grocer in the new extension, in the park between Rissik and Jeppe Street, opposite Shammah Ministries, in the park at 26 Louis Botha Street, in the open space in Eltivillas opposite Khoja's, in the park in Mimosa Street opposite Loeriepark in the new extension, in the open space at the entrance of Makhado Park and in an appropriate place in Tshikota.

In the past, water tankers moved around town, with the advantage that the tankers delivered water right at homes, provided that people managed to get hold of them.  Having tankers that continually move throughout town has the disadvantage that community members do not always know where to find these tankers-on-the-move.

Mr Lawrence Makatu, chairperson of the Makhado Concerned Group, said they had asked for a meeting with the municipal manager but could only meet with the director of planning and development.  ”We told the municipality that if the municipal manager wanted to put up tanks, it was his responsibility; he must do what he has to. But we also told them that this is a town, not a village where people run around with wheelbarrows,” Makatu said.