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No lights, water for Mokopane residents
MOKOPANE - Nearly 200 villages in Limpopo are faced with water cuts caused by Eskom's ongoing blackouts.
The Mogalakwena municipality says because of rolling outages, it’s unable to operate its boreholes.
This results in the reservoirs running low.
Rolling blackouts by Eskom have become the new normal.
While South Africans have seemingly accepted the inconvenience and darkness, in areas around Mokopane in Limpopo, blackouts affect water supply.
Community activist Motlatso Selomo said, “we constantly engage the municipality regarding water shortages. Some days they tell us about broken pumps, burn during load shedding it’s even worse because people don’t get water.”
The Mogalakwena municipality says due to a limited budget, it can't afford generators to energise every borehole.
Mogalakwena Municipality spokesperson Malesela Selokela said, “but as I’ve indicated, we will engage the mining houses, we’ve Ivan Plats and Mogalakwena Anglo Platinum which often assist us where we need funding. So I think from now, the management will engage with these mining houses so they can help us with purchasing and energizing these boreholes, maybe with solar.”
Some locals are helping alleviate the crisis. They collect water at a communal standpipe that still yields water, and sell to those in need.
With no end to the current blackouts in sight and no immediate intervention by the municipality to solve the crisis, the question is how will these residents access water again?