DEVELOPMENT-SOUTH AFRICA: “We Drink Condoms and Panties”

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Steven Lang

JOHANNESBURG, Sep 24 2007 (IPS) - Police arrested ten people who were part of a large group of protesters blocking the N4 highway linking South Africa and Botswana earlier this month. Residents of the tiny village of Ntsweletsoku were so angry about the persistent water shortages in their area that they resorted to violent demonstrations to attract the attention of the authorities.

Ntsweletsoku is part of the arid Lehurutse area in South Africa’s North West Province close to the border with Botswana. The area is drought prone and there are few rivers that can be relied on to supply water to communities. However there is a substantial quantity of ground water that is not being efficiently used to satisfy the needs of local residents.

When the anger of the Ntsweletsoku villagers reached breaking point they dragged 27 empty, plastic water reservoirs to a nearby soccer field and set them alight. They blocked the main highway with burning tyres and rocks and angrily confronted policemen who tried to clear the way for traffic.

Residents of Ntsweletsoku demanded that the local municipality keep its promises and install water pipes and taps in their backyards. Protesters said they would keep the highway closed until the municipality gave serious consideration to their concerns.

Seven years ago, as an interim measure to address the growing demand for water, local authorities set up large plastic reservoirs in Ntsweletsoku and other villages of the Lehurutse area. About once a week, water trucks are supposed to replenish the reservoirs. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don’t.

Soon after the reservoirs were put in place, their lids were stolen or damaged by vandals. People often throw rubbish in the reservoirs and they are never cleaned out for sanitary purposes; consequently when they do have water it is dirty and unhygienic.

Speaking on a local radio station, Eveline Sebogodi, a resident of the area, expressed her disgust with objects found in the water: “We drink…very dirty water in Ntsweletsoku. We drink condoms and panties.”

The reservoirs were meant to serve the community while the municipality drilled boreholes and installed pipes. In certain villages pipes were installed and boreholes sunk, but in most places, the local authorities fell far short of their promises.

In Dinokana Rakoko, another village of the Lehurutse area, the municipality asked residents to pay 113 dollars for the installation of taps in their yards five years ago. The understanding was that this once-off payment would secure the installation of the tap with running water coming from the municipality.

Taps were installed soon after the payments were made, but the flow of water has been sporadic at best. More often than not people have to walk long distances to one of only two plastic reservoirs in the village.

“A lot of people put taps in their yards at Dinokana Rakoko, but there is no water,” Lesedi Moumakwa, another resident, told IPS. “When there is no water I have to take a wheelbarrow and walk one hour to the tank. Some bottles I put in the wheelbarrow; a big one I put on my head.”

Moumakwa said that sometimes the first reservoir she goes to is empty, obliging her to walk a further half hour to the second tank in Dinokana Rakoko.

She added that she did not think the water was hygienic. “The water is not clean. When we drink the water, our stomachs run.”

Several factors have exacerbated the water shortage in Lehurutse since the early seventies.

The area was part of the Bophuthatswana homeland – one of the regions reserved for blacks during the apartheid era in South Africa – and the population of Lehurutse grew rapidly as government forcibly relocated people to this area. Some infrastructure was built to accommodate the larger population, but clearly not enough to meet the demand for services.

When the country became a fully fledged democracy in 1994, the population of Lehurutse stopped growing as many inhabitants, especially of the younger generation, sought ways of moving to cities. However, the wealth of the communities increased, particularly as money generated by nearby platinum mines trickled into the villages.

As the communities became wealthier, they acquired more cattle, a status symbol among the Bahurutse people of the area. The growth of the herds created further problems, as cattle drink far more water than humans.

Sarone van Niekerk and Kobus Du Pisani, researchers from North Western University in Potchefstroom, argue in a paper published in 2006 that given the lack of water in the area, it would be more logical for local residents to change from cattle to wheat farming. They say it takes 16 times more water to produce a kilogramme of meat than a kilogramme of wheat.

Mayor Moji Pilane has made a commitment to address the needs of the local communities. He said he will do everything possible to ensure that water pipes are installed as a matter of urgency.

Pilane also said that his municipality will have to replace the torched reservoirs so that people can have access to water while the pipes are being deployed. Villagers have vowed to destroy the new reservoirs and continue with their protests until they have running water in their houses.

A number of villagers allege that local officials are reluctant to install running water because some have business interests in the trucking companies that transport water to reservoirs. The municipality is allegedly paying truck owners more than 100,000 dollars every month for their services.

But, Pilane said local authorities have sent teams to assess water resources in the area and have begun drilling boreholes so that water can be piped to the various villages of Lehurutse.

Commercial farmers in the district have voiced concerns about Mayor Pilane’s plans to sink new boreholes on their farms. They say it is not necessary to pipe water from a commercial farm thirty to forty kilometres away when existing boreholes in the villages are not being properly utilised due to a lack of maintenance.

The farmers say that large scale drilling for water could rapidly dry out the dolomitic acquifiers that they rely on – and that Pilane’s plan could spell the death of commercial farming in the area. For this reason they are preparing to challenge his plan in court.