Passing the buck, or rather the empty bucket, was the order of the day at a recent “shortage-of-water” meeting in the Makhado (Louis Trichardt) show hall.

Angry residents had a chance to voice their frustration with the lack of a consistent water supply and the seeming incapacity of those who should provide water. At another meeting afterwards, a threat was expressed that residents should stop paying for water.

“I don’t want to hear about who is responsible, Makhado or Vhembe? I don’t want to hear about four or six boreholes. I don’t want to hear about a visit to the minister of water affairs. Providing water services is your job. I want to open my tap tomorrow morning and have water. When are we going to get water?” said Mr Shai Nkoana, a resident of the town at the meeting on 9 February. 

The Makhado municipal manager, Mr Sakkie Mutshinyali, addressed the meeting while awaiting the arrival of the Vhembe delegation. “Water services are a function of the Vhembe district municipality. Maybe the district should delegate the water to Makhado, but Vhembe will then have to give the money back,” Mutshinyali said. He said that he had been told that the four new boreholes had been electrified and were working.

The community was furious that the delegates from Vhembe arrived an hour late as a result of miscommunication. The acting technical manager of the Vhembe district municipality, Mr Ratidzai Madimutsa, eventually managed to start with his presentation and said that one of the new boreholes was up and running. Of the 18 existing boreholes, only seven could currently augment the water supply to Makhado because of “vandalism” of the others. Madimutsa visited the Minister of Water Affairs on 8 February regarding the water supply to Makhado.

“We don’t deny that we have problems,” Madimutsa said and explained that, at the Albasini plant, they had problems with breakdowns of pumps and air valves and with the turbidity of the water after the good rains. “We had three shutdowns, where the contractors had to shut down the water supply to do their work,” Madimutsa said. He added that, for the past three months, they communicated when they needed to shut down the water. 

The Albasini plant, however, cannot meet the water demand. “We need the sector head of water affairs to be in the meeting,” Madimutsa said and added that the R35 million that had been allocated to get the Nandoni pipeline from Valdezia to Mowcop was not sufficient to ensure proper pipe sizes and quality work. The Department of Water Affairs (DWA) is responsible for the pipeline from the Nandoni dam to Valdezia. Madimutsa indicated that he would prefer DWA to do the whole pipeline and let the costs be covered by a Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG).

The community was not satisfied with the “vandalism” excuse and threatened the municipalities. “We had already spoken about the vandalism issue last year in July. The community will stand up and do what other communities do. If Vhembe doesn’t take this seriously, we will take to the streets,” said Mr Collen Maiyana of Makhado Park. Maiyana also said that they wanted the full water management plan and that there were people with the necessary intellectual and other skills to assist.

Members of the community stayed behind and scheduled another meeting, where they decided to write a memo. “We want to communicate our intention to stop paying basic water charges and water consumption,” said Mr Lawrence Makatu of the Makhado Concerned Group.