Page 34 - 25 Reasons

concrete reservoir perched atop
a hill in Mothapodi has added
WATER
something unique to the skyline
of a cluster of villages that WATER
surround it. And, importantly, it’s
Abrought great relief for those
communities.
The reservoir was a response by Anglo
American Platinum to a request from the
community for assistance to deal with an acute ON TAP
water shortage in the Greater Mapela Area, just
outside Mokopane in Limpopo.
Boreholes were drilled and infrastructure was
built, and water is now pumped up to the
reservoir before being directed into a network of
pipes and on to different parts of the villages,
including Ga-Lelaka, Ga-Chokwe and Ga-Matlou.
It supplies villages surrounding the company’s
Mogalakwena mine. The water project is part of
Anglo American’s Sustainable Mining Plan, which
includes a commitment to reduce fresh water
abstraction by 50% in water-scarce regions.
One of the residents who led the community’s
quest for water, Tlou Kgaphola, who is from
Ga-Chokwe village, says life before Anglo
American’s intervention was tough.
“The water supplied by the municipality had
very low pressure and water was not reaching
most of the villages, leaving many of us dry.
Those who could afford it paid large amounts for
boreholes at their homes,” Kgaphola says.
“We decided to approach Anglo American
Platinum, whose intervention was immediate.
While working on the project, the company
started paying for trucks to ferry water to different
sections of the villages ... this went on for more
than a year while the construction work was
under way.”
However, Kgaphola says, the project was not
without challenges and glitches.
“There were local businesspeople who were
not happy that they were not awarded contracts
in the project and they attempted to disrupt it.
We came together and asked them to put the
community first and went to the extent of
guarding workers on site just to ensure that there
were no disruptions,” he says.
The roll-out to all villages was completed earlier
this month, and work continues to expand the
network to ensure households will ultimately be
no further than 200 metres from a tap.
An elderly community member, Sarah Maifala,
stands next to a communal tap not far from her
house while she waits for her container to fill up.
“It takes a while to fill up because of the Anglo American Platinum’s Mogalakwena water project has benefited community members, including
pressure, but it is better than nothing because, Dolvia Moja, who now fetches fresh clean water from a tap close to her house PHOTO: TEBOGO LETSIE
before we got this water, we had to buy it from
neighbours who had boreholes. Things have A project undertaken by Anglo American Platinum
changed for the better now, except for the low
water pressure,” she says. outside Mokopane benefits 42 villages that would often
Kgaphola explains the issue with the pressure:
“Our problem now is illegal connections, where go weeks without the vital resource, writes Poloko Tau
people are connecting water to their properties,
which affects pressure. The set pressure was for a water and, when the mining company came to Anglo American Platinum worked together
certain number of taps, but now we have extra our rescue, we all stood up to defend the project with the Mapela Task Team, a community
ones that were not planned for, which has – even against those who put business interests stakeholder, to get the water project online. The
affected the pressure.” before the community’s. We are really appreciative project was endorsed by the Mogalakwena Local
A headman in Ga-Lelaka village, Joseph Lelaka, of what Anglo American has done for us – Municipality and became known as Hall Core
remembers how life was before the Anglo making it easier for the members of the Water Mapela. This supported the Mapela
American water project. community, most of whom were spending money Traditional Authority in developing a sustainable
“We used to go three to four weeks without on water that should have been spent on food.” plan for the region.
34 ANGLO AMERICAN 25 REASONS TO BELIEVE