Battle for water gets ugly in Vryheid as locals come to blows

In Vryheid, northern KwaZulu-Natal, water is so valuable that people are having fist fights over it. In this town of 211 000, a story is playing out of how things fall apart when the water dries up. And, as parts of South Africa wilt under a crippling drought, the story that Vryheid has to tell is not pretty.

In fact, it’s damn ugly.

There, water has transcended being a basic service. It’s about survival. It’s about status. More and more, it’s about power. It’s splitting Vryheid apart. Some have taken to calling it “Vryheid sonder water” or “freedom without water”.

Zama Xulu, who lives in Bhekuzulu township, about 10 minutes’ walk from Vryheid’s town centre, wakes up at 4am three times a week to collect water supplied in tanks by the AbaQulusi municipality.

She has witnessed the fights.

“People fight because the water the trucks bring is not enough for everyone — we all have to take an equal portion so that it’s enough for everyo ne,” said Xulu.

Klipfontein Dam, the main source of water for the town, is currently at 23% of capacity and below pumping level. Last year it went as low as 11%. The town has had to rely on Grootgewagt Dam — currently 69% full — but it is only a quarter of the size of Klipfontein Dam. Dave Drysdale, acting manager of water and sanitation at the AbaQulusi municipality, said Grootgewagt Dam would not carry the town through winter.

Despite recent rains, the level of the Grootgewacht Dam outside Vryheid is very low.

The scarcity of water and the tensions over it have fuelled the flames of racial tensions.

The 8 000 mainly black people in Bhekuzulu rely on two tankers for their water. In the mainly white Vryheid town and its suburbs, municipal drinking water is just as scarce. However, most homes have JoJo tanks and boreholes, so it doesn’t look as bad.

JoJo tanks supplied by the municipality can be found at 15 water collection stations spread out across the town.

“People don’t fully appreciate the severity of the water crisis and we have gone to the police to lay complaints about car washes at the water stations, but we are just told it’s free enterprise,” said resident Louette Gove.

• Water crisis at new depthsCape Town's dam levels are expected to dip to around 20% in the next few months and experts warn that the city has only enough water stored for the next 100 days. 

Guesthouse owner Rita Johnston said the municipality did not implement water restrictions and, overnight, the taps ran dry.

“They did not start in time with implementing water restrictions. They waited until the crisis was there and all of a sudden there was no water. It was not a gradual process. The taps just went dry,” said Johnston.

But while township residents look on with envy, the taps are dry in suburbia too.

Locals such as hairdresser Marchelle Slabbert have resorted to collecting rainwater. Slabbat stores it in a blow-up Jacuzzi in the middle of her living room.

Marchelle Slabbert has had to take many innovative measures to reduce her water usage and sustain her hairdressing business in Vryheid.

“I often ask my clients to collect the rainwater in containers and bring it with them because the water we get from the points creates itchy scalps and discolours their hair,” said Slabbert.

More than 550 cases of diarrhoea are being treated by 16 nurses at the Bhekuzulu clinic every month.

Cindy Mbatha, who works as a domestic worker at a guesthouse, is one of many residents who complained about diarrhoea after consuming the supplied water.

“We get sick from drinking this water and we also don’t have a lot of clean and safe places to store the water,” said Mbatha.

“Adults and children come to the clinic and all suffer from diarrhoea and dehydration because of the quality of water,” said a nurse at the clinic, who asked not to be named.

But for some the water economy is booming.

Residents are paying up to R500 for 5 000 litres to be delivered to their homes in the town. But, since not everyone can afford to get water delivered, supermarket trolleys have been disappearing by the hundreds. All over, people use them to ferry water from points in Vryheid to the townships.

Bhekuzulu residents have even resorted to hiring bakkies at R150 a trip to take them from the township to Vryheid to do their washing at water supply points in the town.

Thabisile Memela caught a ride in one of the bakkies. With her trousers rolled up she was hunched over the bucket of clothing she had brought to the water point.

“The water we collect in the township is not enough to wash, cook and clean, and we have no choice but to bring it here,” said Memela.

Close by, four locals from Bhekuzulu were soaping their cars at the water point. The flagrant waste of water had local whites muttering under their breath: “These blacks …”

Nico Slabbert, who collects water daily, said white people were being chased away from some collection points by black residents from Vryheid and neighbouring townships.

“I tried to fill water into the tank on my bakkie and I was chased away by some of the black people who were at the water point. They said that filling station was not for white people,” said Slabbert.

A driver for the Abaqulusi municipality directs a crowd of people arriving to collect water in Vryheid.

Meanwhile, Gove dreams of a day when the water will flow again.

“I miss having a proper deep bubble bath and for now that is just a dream,” she said.

- Cape Town’s overall dam levels are at 42%, with four of the mun i c i p a l i ty ’s six dams below 50%, while Berg River Dam is at 53.5% and Upper Steenbras Dam at 71%.

The least-full dam is Theewaterskloof, at 36.8%.

The Mgeni system in KwaZulu-Natal, made up of Midmar Dam, Spring Grove Dam, Mearns Dams, Albert Falls Dam, Nagle Dam and Inanda Dam, has experienced below-average rainfall for the past 30 months, resulting in some dams hovering between 30% and 50% full.

Top of their bucket list

There is always a bright side, even to the devastating drought that has gripped Vryheid.

In this case a water delivery service is thriving and creating jobs as customers pay for convenience.

Water delivery vans can be seen at almost every turn.

When service provider Johan Swart was retrenched from his construction job a year ago, he had nothing but his bakkie.

“This service has created quite a bit of employment in the area because it’s a need at the moment and it is difficult to find jobs here, so last year was quite a good year for us,” said Swart .

“I was unemployed so this was a good temporary way to make a living. We know that people don’t always have the money to pay for the service so we try and keep the price as low as possible.”

Dylan Scannell (blue shirt) and Azar Moola (red shirt) run water delivery services in Vryheid.

Another service provider, Azar Moola, who has also been doing deliveries for a year, said people like him were not charging for the water but instead for the service.

“There is heavy wear and tear on our vehicles but this service has created some employment for some of us who have not been working. This is at least something to feed our families,” said Moola.

The town with a population of over 211 000 has been without running water since March last year.

The only supply of water the majority of the population in the area have is through 15 water supply points run by the Abaqulusi municipality.

With some Vryheid residents reporting illnesses from district-sponsored boreholes, disclaimers are found at almost every water distribution point.

Rita Johnston, who owns a three-star guesthouse, has spent almost R400 000 on water infrastructure. This entailed digging a borehole for R120 000, and buying JoJo tanks (R45 000), variable pumps (R18 000), filters (R12 000), and a generator (R200 000).

“We all had to become very innovative and look for alternatives. A business like this cannot be without water. If you are a business who relies on water, your business has closed down if you can’t afford alternatives,” said Johnston.

“We have heard of businesses who are water-reliant closing down and we don’t even have to ask why because we know it’s because of the lack of water.”

Supermarkets in the town are having to fight off trolley thieves who have over the past year stolen hundreds of trolleys to transport water.

A local supermarket manager who cannot be named said: “The situation is so bad that we have to go into the townships and fetch the stolen trolleys.”