The Democratic Alliance (DA) has given Kai !Garib municipality notice that their ongoing failure to respond to our water-related demands will leave us with no choice but to lay criminal charges against them.
The municipality has failed to act on the community’s pleas to have water restored for the past five months. This follows our recent march against critical water shortages, in which we joined hands with the community of Kakamas. Their silence in response to the collective memorandum, submitted about two weeks ago, speaks volumes.
It is unacceptable that the municipality chooses not to reply to our concerns.
It cannot be that the community must rely on unpredictable water tank services for such a long period of time, with no real plan in place from the municipality to ensure sustainable water provision to the people of Kakamas.
We want the municipality to table short- and long-term solutions to assist the community in their struggle to obtain water in these extreme heat conditions. The municipality also needs to improve the water quality as it is currently not consumable, posing serious threats to the health of residents.
The lack of commitment from the Municipal Manager (MM) to communicate on water shutdowns, to plan and to rectify water shortages, shows a dire lack of will to address the crisis.
The municipality is failing the people of Kakamas and the community has taken the initiative to carry the burden of assisting this failing municipality to have water restored to their community, which should not be.
The DA has repeatedly called on the MM, as well as the HOD of CoGHSTA, for an intervention but no reliable short- and long-term solutions are forthcoming. We have subsequently written to the Mayor to gain clarity on the emergency assistance programme provided by the Department of Water and Sanitation. We have further given notice of our intention to lay criminal charges if the municipality continues to turn a blind eye to our demands.
It is clear that Kai !Garib is in dire need of a whole of society approach to rescue the water shortages and it is only under a DA-led government that municipal-induced water issues will be something of the past.