THE national government has declared drought-hit Amathole District Municipality a disaster area.

Typical is Dutya, where desperate residents have been queueing for water until late at night after their water dried up 10 days ago.

Municipal spokesperson Gail Pullen said they were one of five district municipalities declared disaster areas.

Their dams had completely run dry in such towns as Bedford, Adelaide, Chintsa, Dutywa and, recently, Hogsback.

Cathcart had about a month’s supply of water left.

In Dutywa yesterday, some people collected water from a tanker while others walked around with empty buckets and bottles looking for a place to fill up with water.

“We are struggling very much,” said local resident Toto Jack. “What we have to do is stand in long queues, sometimes till nine at night, and when the water tanks are empty we just have to go back and try again tomorrow.”

Jack, who grew up in Dutywa, said: “All my life I am living here and it has never been this bad. Since last year there have been water restrictions and what is worse is that we don’t hear anything from the municipality.

“We feel terrible that we don’t know when this problem will end. We can’t live like this.”

Local businesses are furious with the lack of a steady water supply.

Yolanda Mausi, of Mausa’s Salon, said they had been forced to close shop for the past three weeks because the municipality had failed to provide JoJo tanks to the town’s CBD. “We need about 80 litres of water a day to do our business. Today is the first time these water tanks are stopping on this road.”

Dutywa hotel owner John Botha said his business was suffering. “Last week all 33 rooms were full and our guests could only shower in the afternoon, using the rain water we had collected.” He had requested water tanks from the municipality but had not received them.

Pupils staying at hostels in Dutywa said the situation was hampering their learning time.

“We sometimes don’t get a chance to do our homework because we finish class at three in the afternoon and then we have to go and fetch water from the tanks,” said Mida Christian School Grade 12 pupil Sinazo Dlambulo. “When the lines are long we wait there till 9, 10, or even 11pm, so there is no time for us to study.”

Her friend Aneza Luningo said they also had to contend with bullies. “We wait in the lines for a long time and sometimes bullies come and try to steal our water. So we have to fight to keep our buckets.”

For others, like concerned resident Yonela Kwinana, hygiene is a major concern as there is not enough water to clean themselves properly.

Toilets no longer work. Sibongile Futshane said she and her family had no choice but to go into the fields.

Pullen said the municipality had contingency plans. “We are doing the best we can with what we have. We are tankering water to a number of towns within the district where dams have run dry. We are currently hiring two 30 000 litre tankers to cart water from Butterworth to fill up 11 JoJo tanks that we have placed in Dutywa. In addition, we are using two 10 000 litre tankers (one of them hired) to cart water for the Goven Mbeki and Mputhi Villages.”

Pullen said they applied for R156million in drought relief funding from the national Treasury. So far, they had received only R12m. It cost the municipality about R25000 a day to tanker water to Chintsa alone.

“We are looking at all other alternatives, including sinking and commissioning boreholes … Even the boreholes are starting to run dry.

“We have established a drought task team and have developed a drought action plan to try and provide water to all our affected communities. However, we are in urgent need of additional funding.” — By LOIS MOODLEY Daily Dispatch

NEW DELHI/BEIJING: A fight breaks out as student Vikas Dagar jostles with dozens of men, women and children to fill buckets from a water tank truck that brings water twice a week to the village of Jharoda Kalan on the outskirts of New Delhi.

In Earth years, a 40th anniversary isn’t much. Likewise, in community awareness, Earth Day is scarcely a blip on the local radar.Yet, in morning headlines and nightly news, the planet continues to remind us that it won’t be ignored.

A volcano shuts down air travel across Europe. Earthquakes wreak havoc in all hemispheres, from Haiti to Chili to China.

In our lush corner of the world, we find ourselves confronted not with seismic events beyond our control but with activities that can put us at odds with the preservation of our water, land and air. Sure, we’re all agog at azaleas; but we also need a deeper appreciation for cultivating a healthy environment.

Folks in south Caddo can tell you how fragile our surroundings can be. They have spent the week sleeping away from home after a well-site incident led to the discovery of natural gas in their drinking water. Presumably some agency will bore down into the exact cause and source for contamination of the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer. But, for the moment, it raises uncomfortable specters.

Has nature itself turned on the aquifer, allowing gas deposits to seep into water wells? Did technological hubris lead gas exploration in the Haynesville Shale beyond the bounds of safety? Or did human error short-circuit safeguards?

In any scenario, the public needs the assurance that systems are in place to protect us and the environment. Sadly, that assurance is lacking.

Front-line responders from the state departments of Environmental Quality and Health and Hospitals may be working to assess the risk, but efforts lack sufficient urgency to satisfy evacuated residents.

Further, the apparatus to monitor well water quality is so under-resourced that there is no baseline from which to determine how much, if any, natural gas existed before in the aquifer. And when people are cleared finally to return home, there are too few answers about the potential hazards to people and pets, wildlife and livestock. How often will these people need to get water tested?

Once again in the wake of a well-site accident, the folks in charge of drilling permits — whether for natural gas or drinking water — are conspicuously silent. The state Department of Natural Resources, through its Office of Conservation, should be keeping the public up to date on its investigation and forthcoming about its previous inspections of the Exco Resources Inc. well site. The Exco location includes three wells: the one that was being drilled, another that had been drilled and hydraulically fractured, and a third that has been drilled but not “fracked.”

Caddo Sheriff Steve Prator was expressing frustration comparable to last year’s livestock deaths, when cattle in south Caddo lapped up contaminated water. Wednesday, he turned to the governor asking him to spur on the various state agencies involved. We second that emotion.

And what better day than Earth Day for an executive order telling state regulators to clean up their acts?