Despite countless complaints from both local residents and healthcare workers, Vyeboom Clinic has been operating without a running water supply for the past 2 years, negatively affecting the day-to-day running of the facility.

Situated less than 15 kilometres from Vuwani township, in the Vhembe district, Vyeboom Clinic offers health services to residents of several communities in Vuwani but water woes are making it impossible for the facility to fulfill its full mandate.

Patients carry their own water

Patients and staff are unable to wash their hands or use the facility’s flushing toilets, posing obvious health risks for staff and patients. “This clinic has almost everything we need to offer full health services to our patients but there is one thing which is impeding all that and that is lack of running water. We do not have water and no one seems to care about the woes which we are going through,” said a nurse stationed at the facility who wished to remain anonymous.

“Here if you want to use the toilet, you have to bring your own water from home. Even if you want to wash your hands after treating a patient, you still have to bring your own water because the facility does not have water.”

Water troubles at the facility started after a borehole which was supplying the clinic with running water dried up, according to the nurse who spoke to Elitsha. The borehole was drilled inside the facility premises.

“I am scared that if this problem persists and it is not addressed, one day it might turn into a disaster. Just imagine if a cholera case is detected at this facility: how we are going to stop it from spreading without water supply?” she asked.

But water shortages in the area do not end only at Vyeboom Clinic, as local residents are also faced with a critical water shortage. Residents rely on buying water using buckets from those who have private boreholes.

Multi-million rand project not helping

In 2017, a R222-million water project known as Malonga Water Reticulation was established with the aim of supplying Vuwani residents with water but it has been marred with delays. Attempts to get clarity from the Vhembe District Municipality, the sole water provider in Vhembe, on when residents will start receiving running water from the project failed.

“We do not have water at our homes and our local clinic also does not have running water. What have we done as residents to deserve all this? Our government does not care about our health and well-being,” said Agnes Maluleke, who stays just three houses away from Vyeboom Clinic.

‘Useless clinic’

Maluleke told Elitsha that it is pointless to reside near a health facility which does not even have running water. “Many envy me for residing next to the clinic but to be honest it is useless to reside next to a facility which does not even have water at its disposal. No real medical procedures can be performed at this clinic as even pregnant women cannot give birth because the facility does not have running water.”

Maluleke urged both the provincial department of health and the Vhembe District Municipality to address the water woes in their area.

“We also voted like other South Africans and we deserve to be treated like others. Water is life and we need water at our homes and even at our local health facilities. It is about time that they rectify this and provide us with running water,” said Maluleke.

Neil Shikwambana, the spokesperson for Limpopo Department of Health, acknowledged that the facility is faced with a critical water shortage. “The boreholes at the facility have dried up. There are efforts underway to get new boreholes drilled in the clinic vicinity. The clinic currently relies on water tankering from the municipality and obviously that is not an ideal situation,” he said.