Ndengeza residents must now rely on dirty water

Most areas in Vhembe District are ravaged by a lack of water, so much so that it leaves many people wondering if the water problem will ever be resolved.

While some parts of the district have been without water for ages, it becomes a shock for those who have had access to water for ages to start experiencing a lack of water. One of the newest additions in the lack-of-water phenomenon is Ndengeza RDP section.

“We have enjoyed flowing water for as long as I can remember,” said Mhakamuni Mboweni. “You can see how dry and pale our place is, for we have no source of life – water.”

Mboweni said that the residents had been without water for the past five months. They had to either buy water at R5 per 20-litre bucket or go to draw some at the Middle Letaba Dam at no cost. That is where residents – young and old – wash their clothes as well.

“We now have to push wheelbarrows for two kilometres to the dam to do washing and draw water,” she said. “While the water might be good for washing and rinsing clothes, I don't think it's clean enough to drink. I don't drink that water, but our children drink it when they go there to either bath or wash their school uniforms.”

Middle-aged Mr Luckson Chabalala and his wife, Ms Francinah Mihambi, had just finished doing their washing at the dam when Limpopo Mirror was there. Francinah was pushing the wheelbarrow laden with a basin of wet clothes, with some of the clothes underneath it. Luckson carried a basin of clothes and blankets on his head. “This system of pushing a wheelbarrow and carrying a basin filled with wet clothes on the head for nearly two kilometres is tiresome,” Chabalala said. “Whom do we cry to?”

Down near the dam wall, some boys were washing clothes and schoolbags, while other boys and girls were swimming. Two older boys arrived, carrying fresh sticks, and started hitting those who were swimming, reprimanding them and driving them out of the dam. “What if you drown?” shouted one of the stick-holders. “We only come here to do washing and draw water, and not to swim!”

Another resident, Ms Rhandzu Maluleke, the mother of five children, said that her family suffered as she was not earning a living and having to buy water at R5 was therefore unaffordable.

“I am unemployed, and three of my five children are above 18 years of age, which clearly means that I am no longer receiving any social grant for them,” she said. “We are all surviving on the younger children's social grant and that's not enough to feed all of us. So, getting to buy water is just another burden.”

Mopani District Municipality's spokesperson, Odas Ngobeni, acknowledged receipt of our media enquiry and said that he would provide the municipality's comment in due time.

News - Date: 22 November 2019

Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

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