'They just don't care about us': Northern Cape residents fed-up with having no water for months

• Residents in the agricultural town of Warrenton in the Northern Cape have complained about being without water for the past six months.
• The provincial water and sanitation department says the Magareng Local Municipality has reported that the town was supplied with piped water last week.
• The department will send officials to the town on Friday to inspect whether the municipality's reporting is accurate.

Frustrated residents of Warrenton, an agricultural town in the Northern Cape, are at their wit's end, having been without running water for the past six months.

Locals say their taps ran dry in February and believe their pleas to the Magareng Local Municipality to urgently resolve the "water crisis" have fallen on deaf ears.

Their personal accounts of what was happening on the ground appeared at odds with information supplied by authorities, who reported that water had recently been restored in some parts and water tankers were roaming the area.

Warrenton residents reported gathering buckets so that when water tankers were deployed to the affected areas, they would be ready.

Residents say they have had no communication from the local authority regarding when, or if, any water tankers would come to the area. They say the lack of communication from the municipality has been devastating and has simply aggravated the problem over the past few months.

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Numerous attempts by News24 to reach the Magareng Local Municipality, the mayor and the cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) department have been met with radio silence.

Sonnet Bryant, a resident, said she felt a huge sense of relief when she randomly opened the taps over the weekend at her house and water came out, but her joy was short-lived.

"By Monday, there was again no water and no communication as to what was happening.  

"It's really as if they don't care about our wellbeing. There has been no water here for months, and as residents, we'd expect that some sort of communication would be sent through to us as to what is being done to rectify this situation," Bryant stressed. 

She recalled seeing a few trucks during the early days in February when the water first "disappeared". 

"The situation is bad. There is no government transparency regarding what is being done to bring our water back. Our people are suffering.

"Water is a need, and we need our water back urgently," Bryant said. 

She said for the past few months she's been receiving water bills amounting to R10 000, which have left her in disbelief. 

She added: 

She questioned what the municipality plans to do with the most vulnerable in the area who would possibly also get big bills.

"So, must the rest of the community pay for empty pipes? It's unacceptable."

Another resident, Gerda Hayward, who owns a guest house in the area, said she had seen a "massive decline" in people booking accommodation due to the water outage. 

"One of the last resorts was to get a borehole at the property to generate some kind of water supply. Those tanks are not cheap, but because I have seen a huge decline in people coming to the guest house, I had no choice but to invest in getting the tank," Hayward told News24. 

She said since installing the borehole, many residents had come to collect water from her, which she said she did not mind. 

"The amount of people coming to get some water is heartbreaking. A basic need that we all regard as a must-have has now become almost impossible for residents to get.

Residents in Warrenton have been without water for months.

Photo Supplied

"We have lots of elderly people that need water for their medication, some sick children require free supply of water but they are not getting it," Hayward said. 

She said she's seen some residents become so desperate for water they have resorted to drinking from mud piles. 

"I mean, how heartbreaking is that to watch? It's as if our government just doesn't care that our people have gone months without water," said Hayward. 

The DA's spokesperson for water and sanitation, Leon Basson, said water supply had been restored to some parts of Warrenton.

Basson said following the devastating water crisis in the province, DA leader John Steenhuisen visited the purification plant in Warrenton on Thursday to monitor the developments of supplying the area with clean, fresh water. 

"A new pipeline has been fitted at the plant base... There are still some areas in Magareng that don't have water, but tankers have since been deployed to those areas," said Basson. 

"The quality of water is perfectly fine. The DA will be posing more questions to the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) as this delay in supplying water was too long," he added. 

Northern Cape head of DWS, Iketletso Lekalake, said the Magareng municipal manager advised the department that the town had been supplied with piped water since last week.

"High lying areas too. Notwithstanding reticulation network leakages in a residential area, specifically Warrenvale [situated nearby Warrenton], which are being attended to," said Lekalake.

She said:

Pressed for further comment on some residents reporting that they still didn't have water, the department said the municipality was the water service provider in the area.

"As DWS, we would need to confirm if what the municipality is reporting is indeed correct and, if not, we would have to ensure that the municipality makes provision to provide residents with water," said Lekalake.

According to the DA, the national DWS was given a grant of R90 million to complete the water project in the province.

"The money has been used wisely on this water plant project. However, the work is not done yet," Basson said. 

"There is still more that needs to be done to get the vast majority of the Northern Cape back with full running water." 

Marie Sukers, ACDP MP in the National Assembly, who was in the area on Thursday, said no water for months on end was "unprecedented, uncalled for and a basic human rights violation".

Residents in Warrenton have had to rely on boreholes for water supply after their taps ran dry.

Photo Supplied

She said she visited the area regularly. 

"There is just no urgency to correct this situation in the province. Ministers have failed to come and address the residents on plans to get the taps filled with water.

"Where is the demonstration of urgency and accountability when some failures and delays affect the quality of life of human beings?" Sukers asked. 

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She added that numerous letters were sent to Cogta pleading for intervention.

In a letter addressed to the ACDP on 28 July 2023, which News24 has seen, Cogta said the water supply to Warrenton and surrounds had not yet been restored since the bulk water line across the Vaal River was washed away.

"The municipality secured funding to urgently implement and install a bulk line on the Old Magrieta Prinsloo Bridge across the Vaal River. The project is near completion, with conveyance of bulk water expected by [the] end of August 2023," the letter read. 

The letter stated:

The letter also stated that to alleviate the water problem, MISA assisted in the co-ordination of the drilling and equipping of boreholes for an estimated R2.5 million in Ditshotshwaneng under the Tirisano Construction Fund project.

"Unfortunately, whilst the boreholes have good yield, the water was contaminated and not fit for human consumption. MISA and Tirisano are currently exploring various options of treating this water," the letter said.