Eastern Cape villages still without water after multi-million rand allocation
By Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik for GroundUp
Though R254 million was allocated for two projects to provide water for 17 villages in Matatiele, Eastern Cape, there is still no water in the village taps.
In one project, a multi-million rand tender to install water for nine villages was awarded to six contractors in 2010. Ten years and R88 million later, taps are still dry in eight of the villages.
The only village that has clean water uses a borehole which was not part of the project.
![back link building services=0></a></div><p>Alfred Nzo District Municipality spokesperson Lixolile Petela said the Fobane water scheme was designed in two phases. Just under R88 million was spent on phase 1, and a tender of R37 million was awarded for phase 2 to JAMJO Civils in 2014.</p><p>The villages that are supposed to benefit from this project are Fobane, Mangolong, Sekgotlong, Bethersda, Thafa, Good Hope, Linotsing, Matolong and Pholile.</p><p>But residents say JAMJO abandoned the site in 2015.</p><h2>SHARING WATER WITH ANIMALS</h2><p>In Pholile, villagers fetch water from a river two kilometres away. “We normally come here in the morning at 4:00,” says 16-year-old Leboh Moloedi who has the chore of fetching water as she lives with her 74-year-old grandmother and is the eldest of three siblings.</p><blockquote class=wp-block-quote><p>“As you can see we are sharing water with animals [cows] and this is not healthy, but we do not have a choice,” she says.</p></blockquote><p>She says the village did not receive a water tank during the COVID-19 lockdown, but she saw on television that other villages had received tanks.</p><blockquote class=wp-block-quote><p>Moloedi says the 20-litre bucket she uses is heavy for her. “At least I will only come twice today. We are trying, by all means, to save water because this place is far,” she says.</p></blockquote><p>Margaret Morhele, who was born in Pholile and is now 42, told GroundUp: “We have never had clean water. To us this water is ‘clean’ since we only have this source … Someone like you will never drink this water.”</p><div class='code-block code-block-5' style='margin: 8px 0; clear: both;'> <a href=https://www.adhang.com/guest-posting-services/ ><img class=lazy src=](https://i.ibb.co/8Npwyfv/Linkbuilding-336x280.jpg)
