Scramble to install taps after DA campaign
A day after a DA campaign highlighting the lack of water in Marikana, Joburg Water started installing new taps in the area.
|||Johannesburg - A day after a DA campaign to highlight the lack of water in the Marikana informal settlement in Kliptown, Soweto, Joburg Water started installing new taps in the area.
On Tuesday DA councillor Gavin Ray visited the township where residents had complained about the lack of infrastructure.
He told The Star he had spent months campaigning for the area.
He said more than 800 households had been surviving with just a single tap for their water needs, resulting in major sanitation problems.
“The people of Marikana still struggle with no electricity, no roads, a sewage-filled lake and shoddy toilets,” Ray said.
“Almost no one in the community has a job, and no one is any the wiser about what will happen with RDP houses.”
However, when The Star visited the informal settlement on Wednesday morning, a large Joburg Water truck and several workers had arrived to install two new sets of taps, just a few dozen metres apart.
While it’s still unclear if the DA’s lengthy campaign was the reason for the quick installation, Ray said he was glad that at least one of the issues was being addressed.
“This community has gone for years with only one tap. We have been driving our petition for more taps and suddenly new taps are installed.
“I think this is a politically driven service delivery. These taps should have been installed years ago.”
He added:
“Nonetheless, whatever the reason for the installation, I am thrilled that the suffering of these people will be partially relieved thanks to these new taps.”
Ray insisted that more work needed to be done in the area.
“It is deplorable that in the new South Africa people are forced to live in these conditions.
“The people of Marikana desperately need the other issues in the area to be addressed,” he said, adding he would next petition for basic access to electricity.
He said most residents used paraffin, which posed a huge fire risk.
“They (residents) also urgently need a proper road because if there is an emergency, it is very difficult for emergency services to access the households,” he said.
Elias Tshabalala, who has lived in the area for several years, told The Star there had been a four-month-long drought in a neighbouring informal settlement, Chris Hani, and this had affected Marikana as well. “The city takes too long to help us,” he said.
The City of Joburg had not responded at the time of publication.
shain.germaner@inl.co.za
The Star