Water outages deny people of basic right and fuel community tensions

Despite all the rights enshrined in the constitution and the Bill of Rights, residents of Phakamisa Township near Qonce have been living without access to clean water since January this year. They have decried the alternative provision of truck-tanked water, which they allege to be unhygienic and unfit for human consumption. Some residents have complained about having suffered from diarrhoea and nausea, and other issues, from drinking and cooking with this water.

“Access to clean water and sanitation is a recognised fundamental human right, essential for life, health, and dignity”, according to the UN convention. “I cannot afford to buy drinking and cooking water for my grandchildren as the grant money is only sufficient for food and school uniforms.” This right entitles everyone to sufficient, safe, acceptable, and affordable water for personal and domestic use. Former Buffalo City Metro councillor Mthetheleli Crosby Kolela said he tried to take up the issue with relevant municipal officials in the water directorate but was told they had no available budget to get the issues sorted out.

He said no official communication to the consumers nor apologies to the ratepayers for this inconvenience was forthcoming. Activist Kamayi Jingqi told me that “having to carry loads of 20 litre buckets on a wheelbarrow to serve the elderly from my street with water to drink, cook and bathe is becoming more challenging due to ever-growing new demands for the scarce commodity [water]”. An elderly woman, who stays with her grandchildren, said: “I even hate washing my body, mouth and teeth with the truck-tanked water from the municipality as sewage-contaminated water was shown in a television news programme right in the middle of the water-shortage period. Another resident told me that families who managed to buy and install water tanks at their households to harvest rain water were constantly asked by neighbours and local businesses to share it with them.