The total ban, for a duration of three full years, on the usage of municipal water for residents’ gardens in a town popular amongst tourists because of its lush sub-tropical vegetation, this week resulted in an angry outcry from residents and property owners facing a predictable devaluation of their major investments, which could run into millions of rands. They blame the water crisis directly on a lack of responsible planning and management on the part of the Makhado Municipality.

A major health threat is posed by the sewage system which is hopelessly overburdened and, as a result, is flooding raw sewage onto the surface catchment area which directly feeds the water source from which boreholes deliver crucial water supplies to the town’s reservoirs.

“If the town suffers a week-long waterless crisis when these boreholes are out of commission for one day, what is going to happen when we permanently lose this total source as a result of contamination from the disastrous overflow situation at the sewage plant,” asked one resident.

The need for drastic attention to the sewage problem was yet again emphasised dramatically last year, when experts warned about the very real danger of Typhoid contamination of the boreholes.

The present water crisis, which during the past weeks reached near-disaster proportions, resulted in angry reactions from residents, bringing the astounding lack of administrative skills, responsible insight, financial management and planning from Council sharply into focus.

It came to light that timeous warnings and available practical solutions to health-threatening situations caused by outdated and overburdened infrastructure have been either pointedly ignored or clumsily delayed by the municipal management and passively allowed by council members.

Residents, reacting to last week’s report about drastic punitive action envisaged against residents who fail to observe the radical water restrictions, inundated the local news office with angry accusations and examples of double standards and bungling on the side of the municipal authority.

“Why should we be punished for the municipality’s bungling? Why should we allow the value of our investments to deteriorate through the destruction of our gardens by a lack of water, caused by the Council’s failure to maintain the town’s infrastructure?” was the consensus of opinion amongst residents who scoffed at the reasons supplied by municipal officials for the present crisis.

Without exception, residents ridiculed the promise that all water problems will be solved in 2008 with the connection of water from the Nandoni dam.

“Nandoni’s water will simply be pumped into Albasini Dam. There is at present not a shortage of water in Albasini. There is enough water. It is responsible planning, management and serviceable infrastructure which are in short supply,” remarked a local expert. He and others seemed to agree that the crisis is, at least in part, a direct result of a municipality which refuses to listen to informed advice and either fails to take timeous warnings seriously or is unable to translate it into appropriate action.

The need to drastically upgrade or replace the pipeline and installations bringing water from Albasini Dam, was already identified more than a decade ago. In the same way, the urgent need to enlarge the sewage-processing capacity of the town was repeatedly highlighted from all quarters, again several years ago, before the establishment of the large Kutama/Sinthumule Maximum Security Prison which almost doubled the load. Funds, running into several millions of rands, were then specifically made available for the upgrading, expansion or duplication of the sewage plant, to cope with the predictable major additional inflow from the prison, which was then still in the planning stage. This was not done.