Kakamas residents live on the edge of a water emergency

• The Kai !Garib Municipality says the Kakamas water treatment plant “may fail at any time”.
• Residents report frequent outages and say when the water comes out of their taps it often has red worms, sticks and dirt.
• The treatment plant is beyond its intended lifespan, understaffed, lacks basic equipment, and chlorine is still mixed by hand into the supply.
• The municipal infrastructure grant is “too small to address this emergency situation” and the national Department of Water and Sanitation says it is funding emergency repairs.

People in the small town of Kakamas on the banks of the Orange River, 80km west of Upington in the Northern Cape, live with failing water treatment infrastructure, frequent water outages and dirty tap water.

They say that when water does come out of their taps, it often has dirt and sticks, and according to Leonard McKay, a community leader and activist, sometimes red worms.

Ernestine Isaaks said that in the summer months, when temperatures reach 40ºC, they get dirty water and frequent water interruptions.

“This time of the year we will get our red worms. We will get it,” said Isaaks.

Frequent posts on social media have shown photos and videos of worms in people’s water. These could be bloodworms which are harmless but indicate that something is wrong with the water supply.

The Kakamas water treatment plant is noticeably deteriorating.

Inside the Kakamas water treatment works.

The local water treatment plant is noticeably deteriorating. Some equipment is not functioning at all. The facility is understaffed. Workers lack tools. Chlorine is still mixed into the drinking water by hand. The chemical had not been delivered for days when we visited.

McKay said the dirty water is especially worrying because children “don’t look” and “just drink” from the tap.

Hildegard De Wee said her household hasn’t been drinking the water as they frequently get “sticks” and “black and brown stuff” coming out of the tap. It’s been an issue for about five years now, she said. Every second or third day, they buy 20 litres of water.

Many residents cannot afford to buy water every few days.

Some of the ponds at the Kakamas water treatment works have sludge in them.

McKay is worried that the Kai !Garib Municipality has no contingency plan if the treatment plant fails. “We will sit without water for months,” said McKay.

People then have to queue at public water tanks.

The Kai !Garib Municipality stated in its 2023 that the Kakamas water treatment plant “may fail at any time and this will have devastating results to the community and the municipality”.

It said, “This particular plant is below the flood line and beyond its life span, which poses great challenges.”

The municipality said the cost of establishing a new plant is about R80-million, and its municipal infrastructure grant is “too small to address this emergency situation”.

The report said the plant cannot meet the daily demand. Most of the mechanical equipment is in a “poor state” and beyond its lifespan. Filters are in a bad condition, which accounts for the bad water quality. The dosing equipment is also in poor condition”.

Leonard McKay, a community leader and activist shows reeds growing out of the ponds at the Kakamas water treatment works.

The national water department confirmed that the Kakamas treatment works’ “mechanical, electrical and dosing equipment has reached the end of its serviceable lifetime”. The equipment at the plant is now about 37 years old.

Kai !Garib’s latest municipal Blue Drop Score from the Department of Water and Sanitation, released in 2023, was just 16%, far below the minimum target of 31%. The Kakamas Blue Drop Score was 23%.

All 16 of the water supply systems in the municipality were reported to be in a critical state.

Spokesperson for the national water department Wisane Mavasa said that it has tried to force the municipality to improve both its Blue and Green Drop scores, and for the municipality to “supply safe drinking water”. There has been some improvement in the volume of supply and quality of drinking water, said Mavasa.

But the aging water treatment plant requires long-term upgrades and needs to be almost entirely replaced. There also needs to be a new river pump station and a new bulk water supply pipeline and reservoirs for future extension of the town.

The department is funding an “emergency refurbishment” to improve water reliability and quality in the short-term, before long-term upgrades are finalised.

The municipality did not respond to our questions.