A Crisis That Should Have Been Averted

(MENAFN- The Post) The water crisis gripping Mafeteng is a terrible indictment on the government, the local government and the Water and Sewerage Company (WASCO).

The reaction to the crisis has been nothing short of inept.

We refuse to believe any of these institutions have been ambushed by the crisis.

Already a dry region, Mafeteng has been having spells of water shortages over the years

It has been known that Rasebale Dam has been silting and collecting less and less water.

Rasebale Dam was completed in 1994 when Mafeteng had a population of about 17 000 people.

The dam was part of the Four-Town Water Supply project which was meant to augment the capacity of water sources, treatment plants, transmission mains, and storage facilities and extend the water distribution network to needy communities in Mafeteng, Mohale's Hoek, Mokhotlong and Quthing to meet their water demands.

Funded by the African Development Bank, Rasebale Dam was supposed to provide sufficient water to Mafeteng until 2000.

That was 24 years ago and the population has ballooned from 17 000 to over 200 000

No other dam has been built to match the exponential population growth.

Nor have other sustainable sources of water been found.

At the same time, perennial and severe droughts, caused by climate change, have hit the region over the years.

Luma Dam and Raleting Dam are natural water bodies that the town has turned to due to the water crisis.

That Mafeteng would one day find itself in the throes of a devastating water crisis has always been predictable

That the government, local council and WASCO appear to have been caught unawares is a testament to their lack of foresight to plan for the future.

Yet even as the crisis has escalated, WASCO appears to be out of its depth.

The utility company is dismally failing to provide water to the town.

It has three water tankers for a town of more than 200 000 people.

Some of its machines are reported to have failed

Patients at Mafeteng Hospital have been forced to use pit latrines and nurses have been reduced to“water carriers”.

Business is suffering.

The result is a looming disease outbreak at both the hospital and the entire town.

It is infuriating that a town in a country that sells water to South Africa has a water crisis.

The enthusiasm with which the government has embraced and implemented the Polihali Project, which will transfer yet more water to South Africa, is not matched by the drive to provide water to Basotho

This, as Lenka Thamae of the Policy, Environmental Justice and Water Resources Advocacy (PEWA) says, is“unacceptable”.

It would appear the government has never prioritised Mafeteng's water security.

While the Three-Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Project which will improve access to water in Roma, Teya-teyaneng and Maputsoe streams is ahead, Mafeteng has been stuck with a silted water source.

The Metolong Dam Water Supply and Sanitation Programme (MDWSP) covered Maseru, Mazenod, Morija as well as some parts of Roma and Teyeteyeneng.

As its name implies, Mafeteng has been passed by

AS the crisis bites, the district council has been reduced to mentioning potential solutions that are essentially what they should have done years ago to avoid the current disaster.

We are told the government plans to drill 10 boreholes.

When will that happen?

The council says“when funds are available”.

They say the long-term solution is to get water from the Makhaleng River. When did they discover that this was a potential solution?Advertisement

The stopgap solution, the council says, is to fetch water from Morija sourced from Metolong Dam. WASCO is already doing that with three water tankers that are obviously inadequate.

Someone has slept on the job when it comes to finding a lasting solution to the water crisis.

We hope this disaster will prod the government to wake up from its slumber and give the people of Mafeteng the most basic of human needs: water.

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