Press statement: LHR in urgent bid to have water restored to Blyvooruitzicht community

Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) has launched an urgent high court application on behalf of the Blyvooruitzicht community to have their water supply reconnected.

As reported in recent weeks, water supply was disconnected by the Merafong City Local Municipality and Rand Water last month.

Most members of the community worked for the now-defunct Blyvooruitzicht Mine which was placed under provisional liquidation in August 2013. As the area’s largest employer, the closure hit the community hard. This latest move to disconnect water supply has dealt a further blow to the already vulnerable community.

Residents have told LHR that the disconnection has left them without access to safe and sufficient water for drinking, cooking, bathing, cleaning or washing. Residents have been forced to use buckets of water to force-flush their toilets, severely prejudicing their rights to basic sanitation and human dignity. Access to water is a basic human right that the municipality is constitutionally mandated to fulfil.

The municipality has begun sending a single water tanker to supply the whole of the Blyvooruitzicht community at five spots which is both haphazardly delivered and insufficient to supply the entire area. Many residents must walk long distances to collect this water, severely prejudicing the elderly and disabled who are unable to walk to these delivery points and threatens their livelihoods as they are made to wait hours for water to be delivered – keeping them from being able to look for employment.

After several failed attempts to address the matter directly with the municipality, residents have been left with no choice but to head to court. LHR will argue that the disconnection was unlawful and has violated the residents’ constitutional and statutory rights, including access to sufficient water and basic sanitation, their right to fair administrative action and the right to dignity. Residents maintain that the municipality did not follow due process when disconnecting water supply and failed to meaningfully engage the community.

The application deals with two aspects: First, that pending the outcome of the second part of the application, that water be immediately restored. Secondly, the residents ask the court to declare the decision to disconnect the water supply unlawful and set it aside.

Residents have also asked that the court direct the municipality to engage with them regarding longer term solutions to the problem.

“We hope that a solution will be found to this matter before the country is forced to witness yet another outbreak of water-borne diseases, which could have serious, including fatal, ramifications for children and the elderly, amongst others,” warned Osmond Mngomezulu, head of LHR’s Environmental Rights Programme. 

The application will be heard on Friday, 12 June 2015 in the Pretoria High Court.