Following yet another water supply disruption in the Laudium area, a meeting was held with various political leaders and officials from the ANC controlled Tshwane Council.
This, after another outcry from residents demanding that service delivery in the area be beefed up. The onsite meeting held at the Laudium Reservoir, this past Tuesday, (Oct 29) saw MMC of Utility Services, Frans Boshielo, Councillors from Atteridgeville, Group Head of Water and Sanitation, Director of Bulk Water and various officials of Tshwane Departments, Ward Councillor Naeem Patel and former Ward Councillor, Alderman Mahomed Essop, in attendance.

The meeting was convened to address the current water crisis in Laudium and the impact it had on the local community and more importantly the way forward, so that such ongoing failure of water supply to the homes of the residents, does not occur again. MMC Boshielo told the Laudium Sun, “There is high water consumption, Randwater will not be able to supply more water, as it is presently complying with the requirements of their license. It is necessary for the community to report leaks timeously and also for the Council to ensure that leaks are fixed within the normal standards and time. Gauteng has a water crisis, that is why we proposed short, medium and long term solutions which are yet to be communicated to the public.”

Some of the key issues that were mentioned was that basic services for arrears accounts that residents have not paid for, would be cut, including the area of Itireleng. According to Ward 61 Councillor Naeem Patel, “The Laudium Reservoir was initially built for 30 000 residents, but over the years we are now sitting at 60 000 residents due to the many illegal people living in the area.” The past eight years have seen an ongoing failure by the Tshwane Council to have un-disrupted supply of water in the Laudium and Erasmia areas. There have been complaints from residents that the Council was not promptly attending to complaints of water leaks, despite the water crisis in the area. Residents are often faced with filling up buckets from water tankers due to the interruption of water supply and concerns have been raised as to whether those who have the tenders to supply water in tankers, are not behind the water disruptions.

Laudium residents were once again seen this week in numbers, filling up their buckets with water from tankers in White Blocks, (cnr 19th Ave and Primrose Str), Bangladesh Flats and in front of the Samaj on 13th Avenue –Laudium. In Erasmia there was a water point at corner Liesching and Barbara Coetzee Streets.
