The Vhembe District Municipality (VDM) has procured four more water tankers to assist with delivering water to rural areas that experience water shortages.
Executive Mayor of VDM Dowelani Nenguda said that the move was a step forward for the municipality as the extra water tankers would ease the pressure of delivering water quickly to rural communities who did not have clean running water, as well as to hospitals and clinics that might experience emergencies of water shortages.
He was joined by the portfolio head of technical services, Cllr Thina Mbedzi, and the newly appointed general manager of technical services, Mr Witman Maluleke, on Wednesday, 4 August, during the hand-over of the four new water tankers.
"We understand that some rural communities have no water pipes and rely on dirty water from the rivers and wells. We had the challenge of having to stretch our existing water tankers throughout the Vhembe region, and this proved strenuous in some instances," said Nenguda.
He said that the four new water tankers would be serving rural communities in the Makhado, Thulamela, Musina and Collin Chabane municipalities, and added that they planned to purchase at least six more water tankers very soon.
Nenguda pointed out that, as the summer season approaches, more water will be needed, especially by rural communities such as Ngovhela and Tshififi villages, among others, that have no running water.
The chairperson of the South African Civic Organization (SANCO) in the Ngovhela area, Khamusi Nthangeni, said living without running water was hard for them. They had been fighting for their own water supply for nearly 15 years now, without success.
"Clean running water is a basic need that we are supposed to have access to without compromise. We used to get water from the standpipes in our streets, but they cut those pipes. We hope that the water tankers will help us with clean water," said Nthangeni.