Residents of Ndanyane in Pomeroy, northern KwaZulu-Natal, have vowed to continue to protest and block the R33 road until the Uthukela District Municipality attends to their water issues. Angry community members from Pomoroy, outside Greytown blocked the R33 Road in Ndanyane demanding water. Picture Supplied.
DURBAN - RESIDENTS of Ndanyane in Pomeroy, northern KwaZulu-Natal, have vowed to continue to protest and block the R33 road until the Uthukela District Municipality attends to their water issues.
The aggrieved community started their protest action on Monday and blocked the R33 road with stones and burning tyres.
Community members said they had been promised running water for years but were still being forced to collect water from the rivers that were also used by livestock and wild animals.
In September last year, the community damaged the tarred R33 road in anger over the lack of water and electricity in their area.
“We are tired of being made fools of by the district. They are aware of our service delivery issue and yet nothing has been done. We can’t continue like this, and we won’t stop fighting.
Even if they can chase us away from this road, we will come back again and worse, we will even do what we did last year until they hear us,” said a resident.
Another resident, Philani Sithole, said the matter was brought to the attention of the district mayor, Petros Ngubane, many times.
Sithole said that after the community dug up the road, Ngubane and other officials came to address the residents, adding that the delegation assured the community that they would be provided with clean water via boreholes.
“Until today, nothing has been done. He told us about a huge budget that has been made available for water projects, yet nothing still. It’s very sad what the government is doing to us as people residing in rural areas. We are neglected but remembered during the election campaigns. In this day and age, you can’t expect people to still collect water from dirty river streams; it’s unacceptable. The cattle are either crossing, drinking and toileting at the bottom and we are collecting that same water to drink,” he said.
The district municipality said that access to water had been a problem since the drought started a couple of years ago and the municipality was still battling to supply sufficient water due to the absence of any rains.
Municipal spokesperson Nomonde Nzimakwe said the district had a number of water schemes that were running in Msinga.
Nzimakwe said that as part of the short-term plan to address the water situation in Ndanyane, the district had revived the existing spring scheme for the community and also provided water tankers.
“As a long-term solution, a business plan has been prepared and submitted to the Department of Water and Sanitation for approval for a proper water scheme for the area that will have boreholes, standpipes and a reservoir. We are still awaiting approval,” Nzimakwe said.
THE MERCURY
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