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No water for blind pensioner (81)

March 22 2017 Linah Mangena ,81, from Lenyenye township outside Tzaneen in Limpopo is one of the residents in the area who struggle with no running tap water .PHOTO: ANTONIO MUCHAVE/SOWETAN
March 22 2017 Linah Mangena ,81, from Lenyenye township outside Tzaneen in Limpopo is one of the residents in the area who struggle with no running tap water .PHOTO: ANTONIO MUCHAVE/SOWETAN

A blind Limpopo pensioner is often left alone at her four- roomed house without water.

Linah Mangena, 81, of Lenyenye outside Tzaneen, is one of the residents in the area who have lived with water problems for the past three years.

On Wednesday  some of the women from the area carried empty buckets to stage a demonstration outside the Greater Tzaneen municipality offices.

They said they were tired of fetching water from municipal trucks with buckets and demanded that the municipality fix the problem.

Sowetan arrived in the area to find Mangena, who is also unable to move around without a walking aid, sitting on a chair outside her house. There was only one container with dirty rainwater inside the yard while the tap was dry.

"I struggle a lot without water. I have lost my eyesight and I cannot walk. I cannot do anything," Mangena said.

Mangena stays with a family member but spends most of the time alone. When the water truck arrives, Mangena has to ask one of the local children to fetch water for her. "I don't have clean clothes and my blankets are filthy because there is no water," she said.

Her neighbour Mpho Mangena (not related) often checks on her. "She is living in a very bad condition because she is alone most of the time. She doesn't even have clean clothes because there is no water."

Mpho said she helped Mangena with cooking and cleaning whenever she was free.

Residents say the trucks come once or twice a week and people are only allowed a ration of three buckets per household.

Community spokesman Archie Mpholane said: "We want to be like everyone else in the township."

Another resident, Alice Nkoana, said those who had toilets inside their homes were forced to put up with the unbearable stench.

Spokesman for the Mopani district, Neil Shikwambana, said the problem was caused by illegal water connections.

He said the municipality had been working hard to eradicate illegal connections to the pipeline supplying water to the area.

 

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