ORANJEVILLE – Residents of Oranjeville and Metsimaholo Township have been without reliable water supply for nearly two weeks after the latest interruption began on 21 July.
The Metsimaholo Local Municipality has been working to complete repairs and restore supply, with residents depending on municipal water tankers in the interim. However, these tankers have arrived irregularly, and residents have not been informed of routes, delivery points or expected arrival times.
Dr Igor Scheurkogel, DA Metsimaholo Constituency Head, says that at a public meeting hosted in Oranjeville on 1 August, residents reported that water delivered by some tankers appeared dirty and was not considered safe to drink.
A replacement pump was to be installed on 31 July. However, according to information from the Director of Technical Services, a further problem developed with the pump’s electrical contactor and could only be attended to on Monday.
Free State municipalities face water infrastructure challenges(Opens in a new browser tab)
The municipality has not provided feedback on why a newly constructed elevated reservoir has not been connected to the treatment works and distribution network. The reservoir is positioned at an elevation that allows gravity-fed distribution to Oranjeville and Metsimaholo Township.
The existing system reportedly depends on a single raw-water abstraction pump at the Vaal Dam, with no backup, limited security and no automated reservoir-level control or telemetry. It must be manually activated when reservoir levels fall.
The water treatment works does not have a functioning standby generator to maintain operations during electricity outages.
The water failures form part of evidence being gathered following an oversight visit conducted with the South African Human Rights Commission at the home of Dawn Thompson (71), who lives next to the Oranjeville Water Treatment Works. Thompson has repeatedly had to contend with water leaking from a cracked municipal reservoir wall towards her property.
The SAHRC has advised that it is consolidating complaints and documentary evidence concerning municipal service-delivery failures across the Free State for possible legal action, with assistance from Legal Aid South Africa.
The DA said it would engage the executive mayor and municipal management to demand the restoration of water supply, testing of water distributed through tankers, connection of the new reservoir, a functioning standby generator and backup pumping capacity.
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