Giyani Villages Without Running Water for 30 Years Despite R500 Million Project
- More than 55 villages in Giyani do not have clean running water, despite decades of being promised that their water woes will be addressed, but to this day, they continue to wait in vain
- Stressed residents are forced to fork out large amounts of money to hire private trucks and bakkies to fetch water from other areas such as Malamulele so they can do household chores
- According to the South African constitution, access to water is a human right, but Giyani residents like Agnes Sithole, who spoke to Briefly News, are not reaping any fruits from this, as they remain without water, after more than three decades of democracy in South Africa
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Limpopo - Giyani residents said they have been waiting for over three decades for the provision of running water, but to this day they continue to wait in vain. Authorities keep making promises of water supply but nothing prevails, as water projects aimed at easing villagers' woes are continuously marred with challenges.
Source: Original
More than 55 villages in Giyani, including some parts of Giyani town, do not have running water and their only source of clean water is through the municipality water tanker. However, the water tanker trucks are often unreliable as sometimes they go months without supplying a single drop of water to the desperate villagers.
Villagers spend a fortune on water
Stressed residents are forced to fork out large amounts of money to hire private trucks or bakkies to fetch water from other areas such as Malamulele so that they can do household chores. Some residents are fortunate enough to have drilled private boreholes at their homes.
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Briefly News spoke with Agnes Sithole, a single mother of two, aged 12 and 16. She resides in Bode village, situated outside Giyani town. Bode is one of the villages faced with critical water shortages.
The only source of clean water in Bode village is a borehole drilled by the government in 2020, which consists of two medium water tankers meant to supply thousands of residents with water. Local residents spend hours daily waiting to collect water from the two communal taps connected to the borehole.
“We are forced to live like animals because of the cruelty of our government. Just imagine, our village consists of more than 20 000 people.
“But we are forced to share only two communal taps to collect water and one has to wake up very early to be among those who will be first in line to collect water. It is very painful,” said Sithole.
Sithole, who is unemployed and makes ends meet through part-time employment, such as washing clothes for others, said collecting water takes much of her time.
“My two children do assist in terms of collecting water, but they are only able to do that over the weekend and during the week, it is my daily chore to collect water and it takes much of my time daily.
“I use a wheelbarrow with two 20-litre buckets of water and I use the water for all my household chores, which include cooking,” Sithole added.
Human rights being ignored
According to the South African constitution, access to water is a basic human right. But Giyani residents like Sithole are not reaping any fruits from this.
Sithole, who is 42 years old, said she gets worried about how she will survive as she is ageing and soon she will not be able to collect water on her own.
“Now, I am still able to push a wheelbarrow to go and collect water, but what will happen in the coming years as I might not be able to push the wheelbarrow anymore and my kids might go and study far away from the village.
“We also deserve to have running water within the comfort of our homes,” said Sithole.
In 2014, the National Department of Water and Sanitation launched the Nandoni-Giyani Bulk water project, with the aim of easing water shortages in Giyani.
The main priority was to supply over 55 villages with clean, running water from the multi-million-rand Nandoni dam. The actual budget for the Giyani-Nandoni bulk water supply was R500 million, but 11 years later residents still lack access to running water.
Promise after promise
The project has been marred with constant allegations of corruption.
For over a decade, promises have been made that water woes will be over in Giyani but the wait continues. Residents remain hopeless that the water woes will soon be a thing of the past.
Speaking to Briefly News, Democratic Alliance Member of Parliament Lindy Wilson said that they have already escalated the Giyani water shortages, and other parts of Limpopo, to the National Assembly.
“It is not only a Giyani problem, but the entire province is without running water. The South African Human Rights Commission did a report that shows that every single water supplying authority in the province was not complying with the constitution,” said Wilson.
Wilson also indicated that corruption and mismanagement of funds are also to blame for water woes in Limpopo.
Source: Original
Opposition party involved
“It is a crisis, so the DA is very frustrated, but we have now taken this to a national level, because the province is failing.
“The problem is that until such time that we put people first and stop the mismanagement and misspending of public funds, we are not going to have the money to address water issues,” Wilson said.
Speaking to Briefly News, Irene Baloyi, who works as a nurse at one of the public clinics in Giyani, said that she has lived in Section E in Giyani for years, but she has never tasted a single drop of water coming out of the government communal tap erected near her home.
“Water here is a challenge which no one seems to have an answer to, while we are suffering.
“I spend more than R2 000 every month to hire a private bakkie to collect water on my behalf, but the water is not enough, while I am spending a fortune. But I have no other choice,” said Baloyi.
Baloyi added she wishes that the government would stick to its promises and provide residents with running water.
“Water is life and it is something we have been promised for many years, but until today, nothing has been done, only more promises. We are suffering without running water in our homes and we are spending a lot of money on water each month, the money which we can direct to something else,” Baloyi concluded.
Authorities not bothered.
But the spokesperson for the National Department of Water and Sanitation, Wisane Mabasa said the Giyani-Nandoni bulk water supply project is expected to be completed soon depending on the contractors tasked with the job.
“78% of the work is complete and the remaining is to be finished by July 2025,” she said.
3 More water crisis stories from Briefly News
- Experts suggest that better treatment and reuse of wastewater could significantly ease water shortages across the country.
- The Chris Hani District Municipality in the Eastern Cape allocated over R66 million to various water projects, yet many villages remain without access to clean water.
- Residents of Gobozana in the Eastern Cape say they are forced to drink water from dams contaminated by livestock waste due to a lack of clean water access.
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Source: Briefly News
