It is almost five years after the erstwhile Public Protector, Lawrence Mushwana, had made some recommendations to the Department of Water Affairs concerning the problems of people who were affected by the building of the Nandoni Dam. Residents now claim that none of the recommendations have been carried out.

Last Monday, angry residents of Ha-Budeli outside Thohoyandou, just a stone's throw away from the multi-billion-rand Nandoni dam, marched to the dam to hand over a memorandum listing their problems. They say that they regret the day the dam was built in their area.

The dam, many years after its completion, has not yielded any water to the nearby communities, even though some far-flung areas are now using the water from it. More than 300 households in the village now depend on water from the nearby river, which they share with animals.

The residents, some of whom were relocated during the construction of the dam, are also aggrieved that the money they were promised for their land has not been paid. Some even complained that the houses which were built for them have cracked and are no longer safe to live in. Some are even afraid that they will be swept away by the dam because they are living right next to the dam, even though they were promised relocation a long time ago.

This has made the community very angry, and a week ago they embarked on a peaceful march to the purification plant at the dam, where they handed over a memorandum to officials from the ministry of water affairs.

"We are very angry that, many years after the dawn of democracy; we who are living next to the dam are still without water. We only see water here and pipes passing through our village, but we are still to taste a drop from this dam. This is very bad for us," said Robert Tshamaano, the local civic chairperson.

He handed over the memorandum to Philani Madondo from the Department of Water Affairs. Tshamaano said they had visited the municipality's offices and also those of the Department of Water Affairs, but they had not received any help.

"We are tired of living like foreigners. We have been pleading with the government for a long time and now it is time to take the government head on. We would like to see the department implementing the recommendations. We will not rest and have given the department 14 days to respond to our challenges, failing which we will take the matter further," he said.

When receiving the memorandum, an official from the Department of Water Affairs, Mr Philani Madondo, said they would consider what was in the memorandum and the letter of complaints from the community. “We know that water is a pressing issue and we commit ourselves to forming an interim forum to look at how to attend to these pressing issues that have persisted for a long time,” he said.