Letter to Amathole District Municipality Mayor, Municipal Manager & Engineering Director RE urgent request for water supply to communities

The South African Water Caucus (SAWC) issued a series of letters between April and August 2020 to the South African government, including the Minister of Water and Sanitation and the President, demanding emergency water and sanitation services. The correspondence highlights a critical lack of access to clean water and soap in numerous rural and informal settlements, which the SAWC argues increases the risk of COVID-19 transmission and violates constitutional rights. The document includes detailed annexures listing specific communities in the Western Cape, Limpopo, Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, and Free State suffering from dry taps, unreliable water tankers, and inadequate sanitation.

• The South African Water Caucus (SAWC) identifies over 200 communities nationwide that lack access to water, noting that the health and safety of thousands of people are at risk due to the government's failure to fulfill constitutional obligations.
• Lack of access to clean water and soap is identified as a major barrier to combating the COVID-19 pandemic, as handwashing is a key preventative measure.
• The government's water query hotline is described as ineffective, particularly for rural communities who may lack awareness of the service or the necessary telephone and network infrastructure.
• In the Amathole District Municipality, communities in the Centane region (Nombanjane, Nxarxo, and Ngcizele villages) have lacked water access for years; despite promises from the municipality to send a technical team to fix dry taps, no officials arrived as of the reporting date.
• Severe water scarcity in various regions has forced residents to use unsafe sources, such as muddy puddles in Mbizana Local Municipality or polluted rivers in Limpopo and Gauteng.
• Women in certain areas, such as the informal settlement of Iraq in the Nkangala District Municipality, face police harassment while attempting to collect water during lockdown restrictions.
• The SAWC highlights that the National Disaster Water Command Centre was established to centralize emergency procurement of water and sanitation equipment, including water tankers, tanks, and sanitation packs (soap, sanitizers, gloves, and masks).

APA

Centre for Environmental Rights (2020). Letter to Amathole District Municipality Mayor, Municipal Manager & Engineering Director RE urgent request for water supply to communities. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Annexure-WW1.pdf?x21779

Chicago

Centre for Environmental Rights. Letter to Amathole District Municipality Mayor, Municipal Manager & Engineering Director RE urgent request for water supply to communities. 2020. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Annexure-WW1.pdf?x21779.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Centre for Environmental Rights |title=Letter to Amathole District Municipality Mayor, Municipal Manager & Engineering Director RE urgent request for water supply to communities |date=27 August 2020 |url=https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Annexure-WW1.pdf?x21779 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{centreforenvironmentalrights2020letter, author = {{Centre for Environmental Rights}}, title = {{Letter to Amathole District Municipality Mayor, Municipal Manager \& Engineering Director RE urgent request for water supply to communities}}, publisher = {Centre for Environmental Rights}, year = {2020}, month = aug, url = {https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Annexure-WW1.pdf?x21779}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }