AfriForum puts Ngwathe Municipality on terms because of contaminated drinking water
AfriForum today put the Ngwathe Local Municipality on terms due to the horrible state of drinking water in Parys. The results of the laboratory tests by the pressure group, Save Ngwathe, clearly showed that the water is dirty and that E. Coli bacteria is present in the tap water, which means there’s raw sewage in the water. The water monsters were taken in Tumahole and the CBD. What is of concern is that many people in Parys suffer from stomach problems, seeing as we are trying to prevent a similar situation to what previously happened in Bloemhof, where people died because of contaminated drinking water. AfriForum has given the Ngwathe Municipality 24 hours to drastically intervene in the state of the drinking water. If there is no real difference within 24 hours, AfriForum will exhaust all remedies available to ensure that Parys’ residents have clean drinking water.
These dire circumstances in Parys are an indication of the municipality’s incompetence. Although they signed an agreement of cooperation with AfriForum, they have not fulfilled any of their obligations in the agreement to date. AfriForum provided them with reports on the water works and the sewage works as well as a framework according to which they had to work to improve the condition of both works. However, nothing was done.
“It seems as if the municipality does not concern themselves with the community’s welfare seeing as they would rather poison them than use competent people made available to them to resolve these problems,” says Jaco Grobbelaar, AfriForum’s Head for the Central Region.
“If anyone ever doubted that the Ngwathe Local Municipality is incompetent, this issue has now proven it. Together with other organisations that care for the community, such as the Save Ngwathe group, we will not leave this matter unresolved, because our communities have the right to clean drinking water,” says Alta Pretorius, AfriForum’s District Coordinator for Mooirivier.
