More than a million people in Limpopo are without access to water.
Ongoing water delivery issues plague Limpopo. Image supplied by Image by jcomp on Freepik
According to eNCA, The South African Human Rights Commission has discovered that ten municipalities in Limpopo are failing to supply water to their communities, leaving more than one million people without access to water.
“I can confirm that our investigation started a long time ago. I must also indicate that we have been receiving complaints from public members regarding water shortages in the province,” says the Commission’s provincial manager, Victor Mavhidula.
Some individuals made presentations at a hearing held by the Commission in 2021. Government departments involved with supplying water in the province were invited to attend. The Commission revisited the areas that they had received complaints about and discovered that people were still without water.
Mavhidula said that his concern was that these villages are without water, while dams are close to full. “It is not about shortage of water, it is about the failure to take water to the people,” he says.
Four district municipalities, along with six local municipalities, have been found to not be in compliance with the Water Services Act and do not meet the standards of a minimum of 25 litres of potable water per person per day.
The South African Human Rights Commission has been working on this report for two years.
Limpopo has been under fire for its handling of the water issue as well as a non-utilised municipal infrastructure grant valued at over R400-million. Several water projects in the area have stalled including Sefofotse-Dithosine bulk water, the Thapane regional water scheme and Kampersrus water reticulation and sewage projects.
The DA has asked the Mopani District Municipality to account for why the funds were not used and to outline a detailed plan on how they are going to rectify this as speedily as possible.
These water issues could have an impact on public health.
