by Mandy de Waal, GroundUp
Ma Gladys Mphepho hovers over a pot on a two plate cooker in
her shack in Papamani, an informal settlement outside of Grahamstown. “We do
not have dignity,” she says, stirring the rice, flavoured with beef stock, that
is her family’s Sunday lunch. “We do not know what it means to have dignity.
Forget about any question of dignity,” says Mphepho.
It is a sweltering day in the heat of summer and Mphepho is
talking about her daily struggle to live, which is exacerbated by the crisis
that the people of Papamani, and greater Grahamstown, have with water. There
are two taps in the whole of Papamani which serve close on 30 homes. Each home
houses some five or six people. Do the maths, and that’s over 150 people who
get water from two taps. That’s to drink, make food with, to wash with and to
do anything else that requires water.
