Rustenburg - The Kgetlengrivier local municipality in North West temporarily closed water in Reagile township near Koster due to excessive losses of water as a result of stolen meters and residential pipe bursts.
“The municipality wishes to assure our residents of Reagile that water will be restored once all the stolen meters and pipes are fixed,” municipal manager Joseph Mogale said in a statement on Wednesday night.
“This is an unfortunate situation which the municipality does not have control over and we plead with our residents to report all water leaks and also report individuals who are damaging the water infrastructure of the municipality.
“We have dispatched our teams to attend to the problems and we hope that all the challenges will be attended to by tomorrow so that the water is urgently restored,” he said.
The ANC in the North West Provincial Legislature has slammed the recent vandalising of water infrastructure in Kgetlengrivier and Moses Kotane local municipalities.
In a member’s statement tabled during Tuesday’s legislature sitting, ANC chief whip Paul Sebegoe said that such destructive acts deepen the already existing water crisis affecting many communities.
“Vandalism of water infrastructure negatively impacts on the financial viability of water and sanitation utilities as well as reduces access to a suitable quantity and quality of water, which may lead to communities using reduced volumes of water,” he said.
He called on communities to work together in protecting all infrastructure, including water infrastructure to avoid damage and service provision disruptions stressing that these acts of vandalism have a negative impact on water reticulation and the standard of water for consumption.
In December 2020 the Kgetlengrivier Concerned Residents took over the running of water and sewage. This after the group took the municipality to court over failing to supply water to Swartrruggens and Koster residents.
The North West High Court ruled that the Kgetlengrivier Concerned Residents could take control of the water and sewerage works to repair it at the expense of the municipality until it appointed a managing agent.
The court ruled that the municipality had failed in its constitutional duty to supply clean drinking water to the community, and to stop raw sewage from running into the Elands and Koster rivers.
Meanwhile the DA in Kgetlengrivier municipality last week said it voted against the adjustment budget because it was not tabled before the finance portfolio committee for deliberations and contains massive funding cuts to core service delivery line items, while vanity projects saw drastic increases.
DA councillor Mduduzi Maphanga said the water repair and maintenance budget was reduced from R7 197 399 to R5 396 399 at the time there was water crisis in Derby and Koster.
“The residents of Koster and Derby are now entering a fourth week of no water supply. It is evident that the recently passed adjustment budget is not focusing on delivering services to the people ...” Maphanga said in a statement.
Kgetlengrivier local municipality is made up of the towns of Swartruggens, Derby and Koster.
It is predominantly a farming area with Koster as the seat of the municipality.
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