Eastern Cape villagers fed up with poor water delivery — ‘our constitutional rights have been violated’

Hundreds of households in Outspan in Matatiele say they’ve had to adjust to life without consistent running water for more than one and a half years.

But the municipality has blamed water delivery problems on illegal water connections and vandalism.

In January 2023, we reported on protesters complaining that broken pipes and an electricity fault had been affecting water supply to their communities.

Outspan is about 24km from the town of Matatiele and falls under the embattled Alfred Nzo District Municipality. Most people have to wake up very early to collect water because they say the five communal water tanks only get filled once a month.

Resident Mathabo Ntise says she wakes up at 3am almost daily to walk 500m from her home to collect water from a well. She is among 800 households in the village who struggle to access clean water.

“We have been attending several meetings where [the municipality] promised us that soon we would have water out of our taps. Our constitutional rights have been violated,” said Ntise.

A community leader told GroundUp that their water woes started in early 2023. “I grew up in this area without water and this reminds me of that time when I was young. We also had to wake up at 3am so that we could be the first one at the well to get clean water,” he said.

Ward councillor Mzingisi Tsoanyane blamed the village’s water troubles on those making illegal water connections to structures in their yards.

According to Nelisile Xolo, a spokesperson at the Alfred Nzo District Municipality, Outspan has one borehole which does not have enough water supply to meet the current demand in the area.

“The scheme is also negatively affected by illegal connections since the scheme was not meant for yard connections. There has been some work done, including the installation of a gate valve near the reservoir. Work instruction was issued to a service provider to conduct a test on the existing borehole to check the availability of water underground,” said Xolo.

The municipality anticipates that this work will start in September 2024, said Xolo, warning that “illegal connections from the main line to households” could jeopardise work to be done to improve water supply.

“Water is connected before reaching the reservoir which affects the water flow into the reservoir, resulting in less water reaching the tanks,” said Xolo. DM

First published by GroundUp.