Procession to deliver five-litre bottles of water to Vergenoeg residents
“Look, we are suffering in Vergenoeg, Grahamstown. We have been without water for nine days. No one has brought us water. We have to guess if and when a water truck may come. There’s water lying everywhere here because the pipes in the valley keep leaking. But there’s nothing to drink.”
It was in response to desperate pleas for help, like this one from Jessica Moodie, that saw a group of Makhanda residents fill dozens of five-litre bottles with clean water and take them to Vergenoeg at midday on Friday March 7.
The group, whose members span political and social divides, has become known as Concerned Makhanda Residents (CMR). They grabbed national attention when, joined by Rhodes University students, they marched to the city hall on February 26 to hand over a petition to the department of cooperative government, and demand the removal of the Mayor, Speaker, chief financial officer and municipal manager.
In last Friday’s “water funeral” Archbishop Nkosinathi Ngesi addressed grateful Vergenoeg residents at the first stop. Ngesi is head of the Ethiopian Episcopal Church and has been key to drawing together diverse stakeholders.
“There are water shortages all over town,” said Ngesi. “But we have heard what you are going through here in Vergenoeg – that you have been without water for more than a week.
“That is why these people here – none of them is rich – what little we have, we will share with you.”
The procession to Vergenoeg was dubbed as a “water funeral” to dramatise the seriousness of the crisis and many of the participants wore black. They gathered outside the Beaufort Street Police Station before setting off, vehicles packed with water bottles, on a “funeral” procession.
“We are faced with a problem that is not of our making,” said Mahlubandile ‘Hlubi’ Kuhlane. Irrespective what T-shirt you are wearing, the bottom line is you are drinking filthy water, or no water. So we are saying we will share with you the little that we have. This is a message to the mayor, to the council: the people of Makhanda are united and we will stand together. This problem was not created by us but it needs us to solve it.”
“Thank you for understanding the struggle we are going through,” said resident Sinoabi Scheepers. “We are glad that people came out to see our needs, and at least contribute to help us. We’re very grateful and we thank the lord for you guys.
A grateful Bernadine Trollip said, “We have been nine days without water in our taps or toilets. And when the water does come, it’s dirty and it stinks so we can’t just use it. But we are grateful for the clean water we’ve just received.
Participants in the water procession on Friday March 7 and the march to the Makana City Hall on February 26 drew Makhanda residents from across the political and social spectrum, including several civil society organisatons.
Makana Municipality didn’t respond directly to questions from Talk of the Town in connection with the water outage in Vergenoeg; however, their communications division issued a notice two days earlier, warning of a planned water supply interruption.
The notice issued on March 5 said the contractor replacing asbestos pipes was scheduled to do the last tie in, changing over from the old to the new pipe.
“Bothas Hill reservoir will not be opened to supply the eastern side until the work is completed. It is anticipated to complete the work [Wednesday] afternoon. A roving water truck will be available to provide water to the affected areas.”
In Makhanda, township areas as well as Vergenoeg are supplied by Botha’s Hill reservoir. However, the timing of the announced disruption didn’t correspond with the period and duration of the water outages that Vergenoeg residents reported.
On February 25, Makana Mayor Yandiswa Vara hosted a media briefing, outlining projects under way in Makhanda. She said that the biggest challenges are faced in repairing and replacing the more than 400 kilometres of (mainly asbestos) pipes. She said there had been significant progress in the supply of bulk water to Makhanda but that there were still problems with the reticulation grid serving local residences and businesses.
In September 2021, metres from where the water procession made their first stop last week, 13-year-old Asanda Qomfo drowned in a trench left by contractors hired to replace the water main from Botha’s Hill reservoir.
For more than a decade, residents of Makhanda and smaller towns in the municipality have experienced water outages – some of them lasting weeks at a time.
