Residents in Rocklands, Van Stadens, St Albans and other parts of Nelson Mandela Bay have been left high and dry as trucks fail to deliver water to the mainly peri-urban settlements.
The situation has been continuing for almost two weeks now, affecting countless households, including some which have been without running water for years, reportedly due to the absence of water infrastructure.
Ward 40 councillor Jason Grobbelaar said water delivery had stalled due to service providers not being paid, severely affecting settlements where water was not carried through a piped-water network.
“Certain properties have no water either due to operational changes or a deficit of water [the city] is allowed to extract from our Western supply dams,” Grobbelaar said.
“The extracted supply is insufficient, meaning those properties cannot get water.
“These properties are now in dire straits as they depend on the municipality to deliver the water.
“Unfortunately, without the trucks, many properties are [constrained] as they can’t afford to foot expensive private delivery costs.”
Van Stadens resident Erika McDermid said people were pulling their hair out over a years-long battle to get a reticulated water supply.
“We have three reservoirs in our area which, since 2016, have not supplied us with water because the municipal pumps underground aren’t working,” McDermid said.
“There is no water pressure, and it does not come up to the plots.
“My water meter is not even running because of it.”
The pensioner said she had struggled to get water through alternative sources since the trucks stopped delivering.
“I must drive up to 20km to get water from someone with a borehole in Rocklands.
“I don’t have a trailer to bring it up the hill where I stay.
“This situation has left me stuck. I have six horses and need water for them, myself and six other people.”
While a desperate McDermid was forced to spend R1,200 on Sunday for 10,000l of water, Rocklands resident Marietjie Gouws said the situation was unbearable.
“I must collect water from a neighbour with a borehole near Rocklands Road,” Gouws, who lives with three other people, said.
“It is stressful because we can’t flush the toilet, wash the dishes or bath.
“We need to make do with 20l of water daily.”
St Albans informal settlement community leader Mxolisi Buya said a meeting would be held in the coming days to discuss a possible protest.
St Albans Primary School, meanwhile, is receiving water from the St Albans prison.
Reticulation systems account for 90% of the water supply in the metro.
Standpipes in informal settlements deliver 9% of the supply, while rainwater tanks in peri-urban areas provide 1%.
Grobbelaar said: “I have escalated the matter to infrastructure and engineering MMC [mayoral committee member] Khanya Ngqisha and the mayor to, hopefully, get an urgent solution.
“[On] Friday, the mayor’s office said they were trying to find a solution, while a water official said they were investigating the option to place JoJo tanks centrally in the affected areas and keep them topped up.
“[Ngqisha] also said he had escalated the matter to the [acting] infrastructure and engineering executive director [Joseph Tsatsire].”
Van Niekerk, through his assistant, Wendy Goeda, said: “Peri-urban informal settlements don’t have access to piped water, and we have tanks that are filled regularly.
“We received communication that tanks don’t have water in St Albans, and trucks are being mobilised to fill the tanks from today [Tuesday].”
Municipal spokesperson Sithembiso Soyaya attributed the stalled water tank operations to a municipal truck that was out of service.
“As the municipal truck was out of service, the tanks would [on Tuesday] be filled in Rocklands, Fitcher’s Corner, St Albans, and other areas.”
Soyaya said the areas were unaffected by contracted services.
He did not confirm how much the municipality owed contractors.
HeraldLIVE
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