Keetmanshoop
Kamelrivier residents say they have been without potable water for over a year now and that the responsible authorities have failed to address the issue.
The village, which is situated about 40 kilometres north-west of Keetmanshoop, has about 13 households with close to 80 inhabitants, mostly pensioners and unemployed able-bodied men and women.
The residents claim that since the beginning of 2015 they have not had clean drinking water and are being forced to drink the unfit contaminated water, as they do not have any other choice.
They say the borehole which is their source of water is getting old and the pipes bringing water to the dams might be rusted which is making the water unfit for human consumption. One of the residents Joseph Goliath said the water from the borehole has become dirty and unhealthy, explaining something is wrong with the water because residents get stomach ache after they drink it.
He adds that although it is unfit for people, getting a stomach ache is better than dying of thirst so they have no choice but to drink from the borehole.
“What can you do? You just have to drink because it’s the only water available,” Goliath said. Residents claimed the authorities responsible for rural water supply take ages to attend to their problem, despite numerous complaints from the residents.
Another resident Jaques Haak told this reporter that attempts to bring potable water to the residents has so far not yielded positive results.
He said another dam was built at the village, which was supposed to be filled up occasionally with water from Keetmanshoop, but this dam has only been filled up once and after that residents went back to drinking the contaminated water.
The regional head of the Directorate of Water and Sanitation Albertus Bezuidenhout said the residents received some water last week, adding that the residents’ claims are not true because they are the ones that have failed to inform his office that their water was used up. He said his office has a huge responsibility to provide clean water to different rural areas and thus it’s the responsibility of the villagers to inform the relevant people when they run out of water so that they can be assisted.
“We have a lot of places to provide water to so it’s just a matter of informing us,” he said.