Qholaqhwe village in the Eastern Free State has not had running water for more than five months, due to pump station failures.
Villagers have resorted to gathering untreated water from nearby villages and mountain streams. Older people, unable to push wheelbarrows or lift water buckets themselves, are paying others to fetch water for them.
Tabita Kokong, a pensioner, said she has to spend up to R1,000 a month on water. “I am living with grandchildren who have to take a bath in the morning at school and I also have to wash their clothes. There is a pile of clothes in the house,” she said.
Most of the village last had water five months ago, and in one part of the village they last had water in April 2024.
Reservoirs are too small and the pump station doesn’t work properly due to “random power outages,” said ward councillor Sashapa Motaung.
Motaung says repeated appeals to the Maluti-a-Phofung municipality to fix the problem have fallen on deaf ears.
Community leader James Majake says the municipality doesn’t seem to care. “They know that we don’t have water but they don’t even send water tankers.”
Maluti-A-Phofung spokesperson Kelopiloe Mongake confirmed that the problem is mainly caused by “electricity load reduction” causing the pump station to stop working. A generator has been bought but there is not always diesel.
Previously, one of the pumps was broken and had to be repaired. She said that the municipality’s “new leadership” is working on the problem.
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