According to a recent
article “South African Township Desperate For Safe Drinking Water” thousands of
residents in Diepsloot, a large township north of South Africa have been
waiting for hours to get access to safe water after a week after their supply was
contaminated by sewage. The contamination occurred due to a contractor breaking
the water pipe that supplies Diepsloot.
Generally
speaking the damage to the water pipe was repaired, but E.coli from sewage
contaminated the water supply. Water authorities of Johannesburg warned
residents not to drink from their water taps due to the contamination.
Furthermore, many residents say that there are not enough temporary water tanks
to serve their large population of 150,000 people. As stated; the township has
65 stationary tanks and 12 mobile tanks for residents to use, and that each
tank has a capacity of 5,000 liters.
For
the most part, many people are going without water. Without water the residents
of Johannesburg are struggling to meet basic needs. Water is needed for multiple
things such as drinking, cooking, bathing, etc. Most families have to buy water
for their families just to make it, however many of the poorer families are unemployed
and cannot afford to buy water. Especially when they have been using communal
taps that provided free water across the township.
Clearly,
this is a social problem that needs to be fixed; they are currently working to
restore the water for the residents. Although it takes a few days to restore
the system, these people have been without water for a week and that is
slightly too long. Also Johannesburg water infrastructure is in need of replacement
and the National Treasury can only cover less than half of the cost needed to
upgrade South Africa’s water services. Many people are suffering from lack of
water or no water supply and are at risk to catching diseases from contaminated
water. In any event, more needs to be done to prevent things like this from
happening or more emergency water is needed to make sure that everyone in the
township can have safe clean water.
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