“While it is positive that the Blue Drop, Green Drop and No Drop reports are again being published after a gap of several years, the reports themselves point to a worrying decline in the status of the country’s water supply. The drop in drinking water quality is particularly worrying, as is confirmation of a dangerous collapse of the country’s wastewater treatment works and a sharp rise in the number of local authorities that are failing to meet minimum compliance standards. Unless arrested, this decay will have deathly consequences as we witnessed recently with the cholera outbreak.” - Darlene Creamer, EngineeringNews
South Africa are at the brink of a breakdown, the signs are everywhere, yet it gets ignored – or rather so it seems. The very most essential commodity for life to exist is water. But the government of the day are more concerned with imbizos, development and designing of banknotes (spelling mistakes and all!) and coins, and failed “peace keeping”- missions to Russia.
These are the priorities at a national level, but are similar at a local level at Mafube Local Municipality (MLM).
On Monday, 26 June 2023 a few photos were taken in Frankfort of sewerage leaks. This is not only painful to see, but also smell awful to residents, visitors and guests to the recreational facilities in the surrounding areas. Some of these leaks have been reported to MLM over two months ago. Frankfort often host events which give our town the opportunity to get nation-wide exposure. The current state of our town is nothing to be proud about.
The unfortunate facts of the matter are, that every time the sewerage leaks and overflow affect the business in the area, it is up to them to solve the problem, because MLM just ignores these complaints and reports. This is very sad, because now businesses do not only pay higher taxes than other residents, they also have to do the municipality’s job…
Getting back to the quality of water… MLM has been alerted many times about raw sewerage running into the Wilge River, and have also been served with eight court orders to fix the problem. But even these court orders are ignored, not only by the municipality, but by provincial government too.
Will Mafubians also first have to die because of their tap water, before the matter is prioritised?
Visit our offices at 18A Church Street, Frankfort on Mondays to Thursdays from 08h30 to 16h00 and Fridays 08h30 to 12h00. Call or send a WhatsApp message to Marina on 079 145 4295. Visit our website www.mafubebf.org and follow us on Facebook.
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