Mmakgomo Esther Ramunyai was beaming with satisfaction when she took one of the new water carriers donated to her village for a test-drive, or was it a test-push on a grubby road in Mmatobole.
The taps in her village, located about 35km south east of Polokwane in Limpopo have been dry for years. The struggle to get water to perform the most basic of tasks is the lived reality of most residents in this rural backwater under the Polokwane Local Municipality.
The situation is so dire that residents are forced to either draw water from the seasonal Tlhakaro river where animals also quench their thirst or wash off the hot days.
Some, including pensioners like Ramunyai who survive on government’s old age grants are forced to spend their last cent to buy water from private suppliers.
“We live a difficult life here. Water is very, very scarce. You can’t even bath the little ones properly. You have to reuse the same water to save,” said Ramunyai.
She has a tap in her hard but it’s become just a useless ornament in recent years. Even the government installed taps on some street corners have been dry for a long time. Vandals have helped themselves to most of the taps.
On Thursday afternoon a group of expectant village residents gathered at the local headman’s home to witness the official unveiling of a borehole donated by the Hollywood Bets Foundation.
The Foundation funds community development projects on behalf of the gaming company Hollywood Bets. These include education, sporting and development initiatives.
The borehole which was drilled 60 metres underground is set to service four 10 000 litre tanks, also donated by the Foundation. The pumping system is powered by electricity.
The Foundation also donated 59 water carriers mounted on wheelbarrows as part of efforts to alleviate the water challenges in the village.
Vuyisile Ngobese, the Foundation’s spokesperson said the Borehole Campaign resulted from reaching out to communities to establish what challenges they faced daily.
She said a lack of access to clean drinking water came out as the most pressing issue hence the Foundation began work to drill and install boreholes in various communities including Limpopo.
“Our plan is to go nationwide. We’ve just started in Limpopo. We will be going to the Eastern Cape as well. So it would definitely be a nationwide campaign,” she said.
The campaign which has an investment of R1.3 million focuses on establishing nine boreholes and connecting them to 42 JoJo tanks and the distribution of 536 water carriers. This week the Foundation handed over similar water infrastructure in Phalaborwa, Makhado and Ga-Mphahlele.
She said working with local leadership including municipal councillors and magoši, they outsource the work of designing and drilling the boreholes to locally based companies.
Ngobese said Mmatobole was identified as a beneficiary after local induna Letsatsi Ralebofu, sent a proposal to the Foundation requesting assistance with the water challenges there.
Ralebofu said the dire situation in the village pushed him to approach the Foundation. He said the community will now pull together to ensure that the infrastructure is well looked after.
Limpopo is one of the areas hardest hit by a lack of access to clean drinking water.
Earlier this year provincial premier Chupu Mathabatha acknowledged the challenges in his State of the Province Address, saying the have “noted that access to water has declined by 9.4 per cent between 2015 and 2021 (from 78.8 per cent to 69.4 per cent). This has mainly been caused by ageing infrastructure, affecting sustainable and reliable water supply, as well as by changes in climatic conditions.”
In July, minister of water and sanitation Senzo Mchunu revealed during an inspection of the Olifantspoort Water Treatment Works that “Polokwane is in deficit by 30 million litres per day.”
The Olifantspoort Water Treatment Works forms part of the Olifants/Ebenezer Water supply Schemes, and it serves as a one of the main arteries for drinking water supply to Polokwane in the Capricorn District, which incorporates Mmatobole.
The borehole initiative has given residents like Ramonyai some relief from the dire water shortages.
“I am going to make sure that these little ones look after this wheelbarrow [water carrier]. We have suffered enough. I was saying to the women in our village that we need to work together to look after this [water station],” said Ramonyai. – news@mukurukuru.co.za
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