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.
“I cannot afford to buy drinking and cooking water for my grandchildren as the grant money is only sufficient for food and school uniforms.”
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.
She said this meant they ran out of their supply, negating the purpose for which they invested in buying a water tank for their private use.
A negative spin-off from this sorry state of affairs was that while trying to help neighbours and other community members, it also resulted in conflict.
Unity and social cohesion get stretched to the limit as a result of this.
The right of access to sufficient water is a fundamental human right enshrined in Section 27 of the constitution, obliging the state to take reasonable legislative and other measures, within available resources, to achieve its progressive realisation.
This is supported by the Water Services Act 108 of 1997, which guarantees basic, safe, and accessible water (minimum 25l per person per day).
The SA Human Rights Commission directs that the role of government in the constitutionally promulgated provision of water and sanitation should be as follows:
• National government must manage water resources through various water boards;
• Municipalities are responsible for the delivery of water and sanitation services and must draw up plans for delivery. These plans must take into account effective delivery services to informal communities;
• SA’s law recognises that due to lack of resources, government cannot provide these services to everyone immediately. However, the government must have a clear plan with time frames and budgets to provide these services and increase access; and
• Government must do so without trade-offs of other basic rights.
There has been ongoing speculation making the rounds within the township about the possibility of an inside-job, in which suspicions and allegations of copper theft and other damage to infrastructure have been made, though unsubstantiated at this stage.
One resident ruled out amaphara (community petty thieves) since the pipe network was complex and underground.
There has been a suggestion that a complaint be lodged with the SA Human Rights Commission after a case has been opened with the police.
- Mlulami Mike Ntutela writes in his personal capacity as a development activist, creative writer, social & economic policy researcher, political educator, and a resident.
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