The Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, Ms Lindiwe Hendricks, visited Louis Trichardt last Thursday as part of the departmental enforcement and compliance blitz campaign in order to curb the spiraling of unlawful water usage.

During a media conference held at the Inn on Louis Trichardt, Hendricks said that the main objective of the campaign was to fight against the municipalities, government structures and farmers who unlawful connected water for their own activities. “The country has an increase in the unlawful use of water activities, the contaminating of water resources and the problem of pollution in rivers as well as illegal use of water. We are giving the transgressors and polluters an ultimatum to comply with lawful water use,” she said.

Hendricks acknowledged that the main aim of the Blitz Week was not to instill fear, but rather to initiate a sense of responsibility towards constituencies, water resources and generations to come. She further added that water service institutions and municipalities had to note that continuous monitoring of drinking water quality was of outmost importance, and failure to do so would handicap their ability to provide safe water services.

During the event, the department handed a directive of compliance to the Makhado Municipality on their Makhado Sewerage treatment plant, which is overflowing, and the Vhembe Department of Public Works for the Matatshe Prison Piggery Project, which is polluting and disposing waste into the Tshinane River.

The community members of the Sinthumule and Kutama areas have been complaining about the stinking sewage for about ten years now and, according to them, the municipality was failing to address the problem. Meanwhile, the director of technical services at Makhado Municipality, Mr Freddy Mamuremi, told the minister and the executive mayor that the unavailability of funds was the reason they were failing to address the challenge. “My office requested a budget of R15 million to address this challenge, but the district municipality failed to provide funds for us,” he said.

The Tshinane River borders the Dzingahe and Vondwe villages outside Thohoyandou, and communities there depend on the river for water for consumption and cooking, while the Makhado sewerage works, which is serving Louis Trichardt town, Makhado Park residents and Tshikota Township, is now polluting the Litshovhu River.

Hendricks gave the Vhembe District and the Vhembe region’s public works department an ultimatum of 30 days s from 27th November to rehabilitate or provide correct measures to the problem areas.

The executive mayor of the Vhembe district, Cllr Philemon Mdaka, said the district would comply with the directives from the department. “We will set aside more than R13 million early next year to help the Makhado Municipality in refurbishing its plant. We are working to-gether with our local municipalities in the water and sanitation projects,” said Mdaka.

The chief director of Limpopo’s Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, Mr Ackson Matukane, gave the representative of Vhembe’s municipal manager and of the public works department in the Vhembe region a pledge to sign if they were to comply with the law. Both representatives signed and commit themselves to taking corrective measures. Meanwhile, Hendricks also confirmed that her department had de-ployed officials into the Musina Municipal area to deal with the outbreak of cholera that has claimed lives and caused suffering to neighboring Zimbabwe citizens.