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Taps dry despite R3.4bn dam and level 4

Access to clean water is not a privilege but a right, the writer says.
Access to clean water is not a privilege but a right, the writer says.
Image: 123RF/WEERAPAT KAITDUMRONG

As a country we are now in level 4 of Covid-19 lockdown. But as a community of Praktiseer in Burgersfort, Limpopo, our taps have run dry. We need to wash our hands regularly!

What a disgrace and threat to our constitutional democracy and a violation of basic human rights as enshrined in the constitution. Access to clean water is not a privilege but a right.

The 347m cubic metre De Hoop Dam was completed more than five years ago to supply water to the villagers of Sekhukhune district, and that included 169 villages around Burgersfort, the fastest-growing town in the province. However, we still struggle for clean, running water here. Why?

This is a disgrace and a threat to our constitutional democracy. Twenty-six years into democratic rule, rural women still have to walk through thick and thorny bushes to reach wells and streams to fetch water for their families.

Those who can afford it, rely on expensive boreholes for water, despite former president Jacob Zuma opening the R3.4bn De Hoop Dam in 2014 to fast-track infrastructure projects.

What to believe now about government's intentions, after the Tubatse municipality gave away R245m to the  defunct VBS mutual bank under the guise of investment when the law clearly rejects that?

Thomo Nkgadima
Praktiseer, Limpopo

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