At This Limpopo Clinic, Nurses Have to Fetch Water in Buckets

Nurses fill buckets from water tanks to flush toilets and take water to the wards at Midorini clinic.

Midoroni Clinic has been without running water since mid-2023. Located outside Louis Trichardt in Limpopo, it serves the villages of Midoroni, Tshikhodobo, Maebani and Ha-Makhitha.

The problem would appear to be simple to fix. There are three water tanks which are regularly filled. But the booster pump to pump the water to where it is needed does not work.

Instead, staff must fill buckets from a tap next to the tanks. Nurses use an inside toilet, which they flush with buckets. They also fetch water for the delivery ward in buckets. The outpatient bathrooms have not worked for two-and-a-half years. Patients now use chemical toilets in the yard. No toilet paper is provided and there is nowhere to wash hands.

Limpopo secretary for the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) Jacob Molepo said the situation makes it difficult for nurses to work and is unhygienic for patients.

Beyond the water challenges, the clinic is in poor shape. Broken windows are patched with cardboard and the roof leaks.

DENOSA says it will escalate the issue to the provincial health department since the Vhembe District Municipality has failed to help.

On 28 May, the Midoroni Clinic committee asked the Vhembe district health department to provide a groundsman to help with daily maintenance. Seven months later, the committee has not received any response, says Kenneth Muleya, the committee secretary.

“There is only one person who is assigned to do daily maintenance of the whole clinic infrastructure. It is really impossible for him to cope with the amount of work at the clinic,” says Muleya.

The committee is now calling on the province to urgently fix the water challenges and maintain the clinic.

It would also like the clinic to stay open 24 hours instead of closing at 4pm. The next nearest after-hours clinic is Tshikwarani clinic, five kilometres away.

Ward Councillor Tshifularo Kutama said he had sent several letters to the Limpopo Health MEC and Vhembe District Municipality, but “we have not received any response”.

GroundUp received no response to questions sent last week to the Limpopo health department.

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