15 Sep 2013

Residents of Kopong have complained about what they termed poor service delivery by the Water Utilities Cooperation (WUC).

Speaking during a recent kgotla meeting addressed by the Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Patrick Masimolole, the residents said they had gone almost a month without continuous water supply. One of the residents, Ms Akofang Kgwakgwa, said, “we are dying of thirst and it’s so serious that some people literally cry.”

Ms Kgwakgwa said the Department of Water Affairs was better than WUC because it stuck to its mandate and tried by all means to supply people with water at all times regardless of the climate conditions. The residents said the introduction of prepaid cards did not help the situation as they now have to travel long distances to fetch water, which is not available mostof the time.  

They said the tanks in their village were not filled regularly as the WUC had promised and this made the community suffer even more. The residents also told Mr Masimolole that WUC needed to put its house in order so that the members of the public can enjoy reliable and consistent supply of water.

They attributed part of the problem to  WUC’s poor work ethic and alleged that the only area where WUC staff seem to be doing well is in the area of revenue collection as they address kgotla meetings to urge people to pay their water bills.

On contrary, the residents said Water Affairs worked day and night to resolve water shortages and eventually address other things when people were satisfied with the supply of water. As a result of water shortage, the residents said, they had to dig along the river bank to find water.

They said they had done and tried every possible way to cooperate with WUC but the corporation was not fulfilling its promises, hence their decision to look for water in the river.

Meanwhile, Assistant Minister Masimolole said he was disappointed that WUC was not represented at the kgotla meeting. He promised to present their water woes to the relevant authorities. Ends