The Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) has added its voice to the fracking debate, arguing that fracking could dump cancer-causing chemicals into the drinking water of Karoo communities where fracking is proposed.
As municipal taps remain dry, Hammanskraal communities outside Pretoria continue to go to great lengths for drinking water.
Amid ongoing power cuts, many communities are dealing with intermittent water supplies and relying on water trucks for portable water as municipalities struggle to maintain their water systems.
Without running water, residents of one rural Mpumalanga community say they are left to beg for water at the gates of a local school where they say security guards often turn them away empty handed.
At least two villages in Limpopo’s Mutale Local Municipality depend on municipal water trucks to survive but now villagers are claiming the trucks are delivering dirty water.
Residents of the small, rural Mpumalanga town of Vezinyawo said they were told to pay R2 to keep a municipal water pump working after the municipality would not pay R200 for prepaid electricity, residents allege.
Local Ward 3 Councillor Susan Nthangeni says R300 million has been allocated to fix local municipal pipes and boreholes following deadly service delivery protests in April.
A recent water shortage in Lusikisiki, Eastern Cape and surrounding areas is being blamed for at least four cases of diarrhoea among local children.
Residents of Silahliwe informal settlement outside Bethlehem share one working toilet for about every 900 people. According to local officials, securing access to water and sanitation may mean that about a third of the settlement’s residents will have to move.
Months after Ourhealth reported about longstanding illegal dumping sites flanking schools in Stinkwater outside Pretoria, the community has taken the problem into its own hands and started neighbourhood clean up campaigns.
Residents of the Northern Cape’s Lorato Park have refused to pay municipal bils until raw sewage alledgedly flooding their yards is clearned up.
Areas of Winterveld about 40 kms outside of Pretoria say they are tired of relying on municipal water trucks as Rand Water pipes remain dry.
Braamfischerville have welcomed the second phase in renovations set to improve waste management in the Soweto neighbourhood.
Residents of Mofolo, Soweto said the latest death of a child on the neighbourhood’s infamous Machaba Drive is the last straw.
Life is hardest for people living in the Eastern Cape’s Alfred Nzo district, where fewer than six out of 100 households have inside taps.
