Life is extremely difficult without water: Bushbuckridge resident

Residents of several villages within the Bushbuckridge Local Municipality in Mpumalanga have expressed concern about water shortages .

Some residents report being without water for more than a month, while others have been without water for over a week.

They are forced to fetch water from polluted streams and rivers, and some are resorting to purchasing water.

One of the residents, Thembani Mukasi, says life is extremely difficult without water.

“We have got toilets inside the houses.

It stinks.

We can’t help ourselves because there is no water.

No water tanker coming around to service us, nothing.

Yesterday, I spent almost R150 to go and buy water to bath with, to wash with, to cook with, and to drink for my household.

I don’t have that kind of money.

Life is tough here.” The Bushbuckridge Local Municipality says the water crisis has been caused by vandalism at the Inyaka Dam Pump Station.

The municipality’s Executive Mayor Lydia Moroane-Zitha says the municipality is working around the clock to restore water supply to affected communities.

“Thugs went to our pump station, they cut the cables and also burnt some of the infrastructure that is used to pump water to our residents.

The measures that we have taken, one was to open a case against what has happened to our security personnel there, including our infrastructure and we have also made sure that we have repaired the damages.