South Africa: 32 volunteers and a broken tap transform the Eastern Cape

Nothembile Vayo is 57 years old and lives in Tshezi Village in the former Transkei. After a stroke, she could barely walk. The tap near her house was dry. She had to walk to the river to collect water. It sounds like a sentence from a report. It is her daily life.

The Mncwasa Water Scheme was built in 2015 at a cost of 125 million rand. It was designed to supply drinking water to 33,000 people. A central treatment plant pumps water from a dam into 31 reservoirs, which feed thousands of communal taps. By 2020, almost nothing worked. Pipes leaked, some reservoirs overflowed while others stood empty. The Amathole District Municipality was bankrupt and under administration. Going to court was pointless.

So the community chose a different path. Equality Collective, an organisation based in Nqileni village, formed a committee with traditional leaders, ward councillors, and residents. Six volunteers surveyed 300 households. More than half had no water. Eighty-two percent did not have water every day. Then 32 volunteers began checking the 31 reservoirs daily. Simlindile Lamani is one of them. He says people greet him every day with a smile.

The volunteers’ data went to the municipality and to engineers. The finding was clear: the system needs daily adjustment to stay in hydraulic balance. What was missing was not technology but observation. The community provided it.

Between August 2022 and January 2026, water reliability in Mncwasa rose from 41 to 81 percent. Noluvo Mandukwini, the water rights coordinator at Equality Collective, says: Our communities have power and deep expertise. By working with municipalities, communities can create sustainable and scalable change.

Children attend school more regularly because uniforms get washed. Girls spend less time collecting water. The engineers have a word for it: hydraulic balance. The residents have another: dignity.

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