FEATURE |‘ We won’t vote without water’: Limpopo villagers forced to drink from filthy puddle

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Thirty-two years into South Africa’s democracy, some of the country’s most remote villages are still forced to drink dirty water from rainwater puddles.

Eyewitness News travelled to Phugwane village near Malamulele in Limpopo, where water had not flowed from communal taps in more than a decade.

Residents loaded buckets onto wheelbarrows and walked almost two kilometres to a puddle of discoloured water.

The same rainwater is also used by animals, with cow dung visible near what had become the community’s main source of water.

The small village was hidden deep within Malamulele’s dense vegetation, with a 30-minute drive along a gravel road needed to reach the community.

There, communal taps lined the streets, but not a single drop flowed from them.

Two elderly women asked Eyewitness News to accompany them to a desolate field.

There, they pointed to what they said was their only source of water.

The water was discoloured. The smell of cow dung lingered around the waterhole, while the stench of urine was difficult to ignore.

Sixty-six-year-old Grace Chauke took a small five-litre bucket, filled it with the discoloured water and funnelled it into a 20-litre container.

“We won’t vote without water. They must bring us water first. What’s the point of voting when we don’t even have water? We’re sitting here in the heat, sweating, and when we need to bathe, we’ll still have to go and fetch water. It’s the same water we use for drinking. We won’t vote until they give us water.”

Just beside her, 70-year-old Maria Maluleke poured the murky water into a two-litre bottle before lifting it to her lips and taking several gulps to quench her thirst.

Eyewitness News tried to stop her, concerned about the water she was drinking.

But Maluleke insisted she was not putting on a show for the camera.

This, she said, is simply what she does every day.

“We live off this water. We drink it, we cook with it. We are suffering. They said they were going to drill a borehole, which they did but no water flows from it.”

As the two elderly women collected water to drink, another woman arrived at the filthy waterhole, carrying a bundle of laundry.

Among the clothes she washed were tiny pink garments, small enough to fit a newborn baby.

The scene offered another glimpse into how deeply the water crisis had affected everyday life in Phugwane.

Community leader Khalas Mathonsi said it pained him that the same water residents relied on for drinking was also being used by animals.

“When you drink this water, which is also used by animals, there are lots of diseases that can attack us. Some of the animals are sick. So, drinking this type of water, we are endangering ourselves,” he said.

Vhembe District Municipality spokesperson Mbhoni Manganyi said the municipality is aware of the water crisis in the village.

“The municipality recognises the seriousness of residents having to rely on alternative water sources and is taking steps to address the underlying water supply challenges.”

“The primary challenge affecting water availability at the communal taps is insufficient water supply from the available sources. The municipality previously drilled two boreholes to supplement the water supply; however, one borehole did not yield enough water to meet the community’s demand.”

“The municipality is, therefore, continuing with groundwater exploration and borehole sitting to identify additional viable underground water sources as a short-term intervention. Where a suitable source is identified, the intention is to connect it to the existing reservoir and reticulation infrastructure,” he added.

While Eyewitness News did see several boreholes in the villages, none of them were working.

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