Residents of the Mmangweni rural village in the Eastern Cape, with the help of the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), have filed an application in the Eastern Cape High Court (Mthatha) seeking an order requiring the municipality to urgently deliver clean water to the community.

The application is against the OR Tambo District Municipality and other government actors, says TimesLIVE. 'The water that residents drink and bathe with, seeps from the ground near an open space where livestock also drink and defecate. Tests show that the water is infested with E.coli.

Residents suffer rashes, stomach aches and diarrhoea from drinking the water and bathing with it.

To collect water, they walk long distances up and down steep slopes, and wait long hours, depending on how many people are in line and how slow the water trickles from the ground,' said the LRC. The community is seeking a court order requiring the municipality to abide by its constitutional obligations.

Said the LRC: 'Section 27 of the Constitution guarantees everyone the right to access to sufficient water. The District Municipality is responsible for ensuring the realisation of this right for the people within its jurisdiction. The court application will hopefully result in a court order directing the District Municipality to supply a minimum 25 litres of water per person, per day, and to submit to the court a written plan for providing water on an urgent basis to all people within its jurisdiction who desperately need water.'

The matter is being opposed and the court will decide on 28 June whether it will hear the matter on a semi-urgent basis.

Full TimesLIVE report