Taps have run dry in Burgersdorp even though the town’s main supply dam, the JL de Bruin dam, is overflowing.
In certain areas of Burgersdorp residents go up to seven days without water while watershedding is also being implemented.
This crisis is due to the inability of the Walter Sisulu Municipality to restore electricity to the water pumpstation.
I will now write to the EC MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Zolile Williams, requesting him to intervene and provide a plan to remedy the situation.
On 10 November 2022 copper cables at the pumpstation at the JL de Bruin dam were vandalized, and the transformer damaged.
This dam provides the Water Treatment Works with raw water to be purified and distributed to the town and areas of Thembisa, Eureka and Mzamomhle.
Burgersdorp endures watershedding from 05:00 to 12:00 every second or third day.
Eureka, Thembisa and Mzamomhle go days without water. Some areas in Thembisa recently went a week without water.
This has negatively affected businesses, clinics, schools, the hospital, and residents.
The Joe Gqabi District Municipality is the Water Services Provider and is responsible for pumping and purifying untreated water, and then distributing it to communities.
The Walter Sisulu Municipality oversees the electricity provision so that water can be pumped successfully. The damaged transformer has made this impossible.
The transformer was eventually sourced and arrived in Burgersdorp on 24 November 2022.
Cables were laid and prepped, only to discover that the transformer was the wrong specification and not big enough to even start the pumps.
Burgersdorp does not have a water problem but a serious water management problem.
The failures of both the Joe Gqabi District Municipality, which is responsible for water, and the Walter Sisulu Municipality, responsible for electricity provision to the pumps, have deprived residents of their fundamental human rights.
These two municipalities do not care about the residents of Burgersdorp, Eureka, Thembisa and Mzamomhle.
The DA will not allow two dysfunctional ANC municipalities to deny residents access to water.