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Makhanda residents picket outside City Hall with Rhodes University students on Monday to demand a permanent solution to the water crisis.
- About 300 Rhodes University students joined Makhanda residents and civic movements in a march to City Hall on Monday.
- They are demanding that the Makana municipality find a short-term and permanent solution to the ongoing water crisis in the town.
- The most recent major setback has been an unresolved blockage at Howiesons Poort, one of the major dams.
- The municipality has promised to respond to protesters in seven working days.
About 300 Rhodes University students joined Makhanda residents and civil society movements on Monday to march to City Hall on Monday. They protested against the ongoing water crisis.
Groups joining the march included, among others, the Makana Civil Community Coalition and Unemployed People's Movement.
The protesters demanded that the City find a permanent solution to the crisis.
In April, GroupUp reported on Makhanda residents, old and young, queuing with cars and donkey carts to fill their containers at a water tanker provided by Gift of the Givers. The organisation has been trucking water and much-needed disaster relief to communities as the municipality battles a crippling water crisis.
Makana Residents Association secretary Tim Bull recently told GroundUp that he believed that the issue was not that the dams were empty but rather with the municipal administration. He said that it was not clear that the James Kleynhans upgrade would solve much of the problem until the city had a functioning municipality.
On Monday, municipal manager Phumelelo Kate told the protesters that the municipality would respond to their demands within seven working days.
READ | ANALYSIS | Good governance as a solution to SA's water crisis
Ayanda Kota, leader of the Unemployed People's Movement, said Makhanda residents were tired of addressing the water issue with senior officials without any resolution.
Kota said if the municipality didn't respond timeously, they would intensify action.
Many of the students GroundUp spoke to said they often missed lectures because there was no water to wash or do laundry.
Student Anazo Makhathini from Durban said she couldn't afford to buy water with her NSFAS stipend.
Makhathini said:
How are we supposed to buy water with money meant to cover our needs as students? The municipality knows we depend on them. They also benefit from the university because we students boost the economy.
Craig Matthews from Cape Town said, "We are trying to voice our concern over this water crisis in Makhanda. It is the responsibility of the municipality to ensure that we have water. How are we going to survive without water?"
According to university spokesperson, Velisile Bukula, students had also handed a memo to vice-chancellor Sizwe Mabizela.
Bukula wrote that despite the student leaders' assurances that the protest would not be disruptive, access to the campus was blocked in the morning and critical services like food and cleaning were disrupted.
"As the university processes the issues raised by the students, the university leadership urges the SRC to allow unimpeded access to campus so that critical services can be rendered and for the academic programme to resume."
In a statement on Monday, the municipality noted that there was an issue at the Howiesons Poort dam.
The statement read:
A team of divers came to unblock any potential disruption. Although some debris and rusted metals were discovered, the blockage is still persisting.
"Amatola Water also dispatched a team on 7 May but [without] luck. Further investigations are currently under way. It is regrettable that it’s taking so long as it is the first time such a problem occurs. Water will now be opened on Thursday, 11 May."
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