Promises, promises, but still no proper water supply in Musina
Children do the family’s washing at a broken municipal water pipe
Families in Musina do their laundry at a broken municipal water pipe. They say they have not had water in their houses for three months. Photo: Bernard Chiguvare
- In spite of promises made more than two years ago by high-ranking politicians, families in Musina, Limpopo, are still battling an erratic water supply.
- Some say they have had no water in their taps for three months and are having to do their washing at a broken municipal pipe in the bush.
- The Vhembe District Municipality, in charge of the water supply, says “a service provider has been appointed to do a technical report”.
Families from Matswale and Harper townships in Musina are having to wash their clothes in the bush where water is gushing from a broken municipal pipe.
Most of them live in RDP houses with a tap in each yard. But they say they have not had water in their taps for three months. Water is brought in a truck by the municipality, but only once a week, and they say this is not nearly enough.
As a result the families go to a broken municipal water pipe in the bush behind Harper township, a few metres from the N1 highway.
When GroundUp visited the site on Saturday, 7 December, several people, including children, were doing their laundry. Others were carrying water on their heads to their homes.
They say the area is a hotspot for criminal activities but they come anyway because they have no choice.
Vhembe District Municipality is the water authority.
Residents have long protested about the poor water supply in Musina. In March 2022, after a meeting with then Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation Dikeledi Magadzi and the municipality, residents were promised that a plan would be made. Lucy Kobe, Limpopo Department of Water and Sanitation spokesperson, said then that the provincial water and sanitation department was finalising plans to fix Musina’s water challenges.
But residents are losing hope that anything will ever be done.
“It seems there is no solution for the water crisis in our town. We had a meeting with the Deputy Minister in 2022, which we thought was productive, but we still don’t have consistent water. We wonder what’s going on,” said Peter Jack, a leader of community organisation Musina To The Front.
Moira Rodrigues from Matswale said she doesn’t get enough water from the truck, but she will not go to the pipe in the bush as she believes the area is dangerous. Instead, she buys 5,000 litres of water every month for R600 from an illegal seller, which is a strain on her pension. “I shouldn’t have to use my pension money for water, which is a basic necessity the municipality should provide.”
Another woman, who did not want to give her name, said she could not afford to buy water and had been coming to the bush for three months in spite of safety concerns.
“We have to come in groups because of the bushy area. We often find some men around, and we are not sure what their intentions are. The other day, we had to wait for them to finish bathing at the same place before we could use the water,” she said.
Vanessa Roets, who runs a crèche in Musina town, says it is difficult without water. “The children and staff need to use the bathroom and wash their hands. If there is no water, I have to travel 30 kilometres out of town to fetch water from relatives on their farms. If I can not do that, I have to close the crèche until the taps have water again.”
On WhatsApp groups people complained that the Vhembe District Municipality was doing nothing. “Our taps are dry for months but we still receive water bills,” said one resident.
In answer to GroundUp’s questions, Vhembe District Municipality spokesperson Matodzi Ralushai said the community received water in their taps “on a rotational basis” due to “insufficient water supply from the source”. He said three additional boreholes had been drilled but the yield on two of them was too low.
Two water tankers had been allocated to Musina municipality.
Asked about the past promises and delays, he said only that the municipality “had a challenge with aged infrastructure” and had recently “appointed a service provider to develop a technical report for funding”.
“We are still facing challenges,” he said. “We still do not have any permanent solution.”
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