South Africa’s political own goal water crisis is nothing short of criminal

Dear DM168 reader,

I spent the Easter weekend with family and friends at the tranquil Zwakala River Retreat in Haenertsburg in Limpopo.

Zwakala is nestled high up on the forested slopes of the Magoebaskloof mountains, and we were drenched with relentless downpours of rain, and slipped and slid on muddy mountain roads.

While the rain kept us running for cover when we would have preferred to be hanging around the campfire and swimming in the Broederstroom River, the weekend away made us acutely aware of how much we take for granted the value of water.

We can survive close to a month without food, but after just three days without water, we are at death’s door.

In this week’s DM168 lead story, Our Burning Planet writer Tony Carnie writes about the terrifying fact that despite South Africa being a water-scarce country, up to 40% of piped water is lost in cities, towns and villages as a result of leaks. This is criminal on so many levels.

I was gobsmacked this weekend to hear from fellow Zwakala campers from Polokwane about how businesses and families have to fork out between R10,000 and R20,000 a month for water from tanks, as leaking pipes and poor water infrastructure maintenance have led to a critical water shortage in the biggest city in Limpopo.

The water shortage is so bad that residents can’t flush toilets up to three days at a time. This led to frustrated residents of Polokwane, Seshego and surrounding areas shutting down the city on Thursday, 4 April.

Residents interviewed by TimesLIVE reporter Phathu Luvhengo spoke about the insidious nature of the problem. They spoke of water tankers deployed in areas where there was water infrastructure, but the repairs were delayed because, if they fixed the infrastructure, certain businesspeople would no longer benefit. One resident tellingly said: “It seems the water crisis is a man-made [problem] so that they can appoint a contractor and say we are fixing the problem.”

The mayor of Polokwane accused the shutdown of being politicking before the elections. Bloody hell, Mr Mayor, when there is an abundance of water but not a drop to drink, water IS political.

It’s political in the economic hub of Johannesburg, where leaks, rolling power blackouts and some fool closing a valve deprived residents of water for weeks.

It’s political in Tshwane, where more than 30 people died of a cholera outbreak in Hammanskraal because of what water management expert and Unisa professor Anja du Plessis attributes to the legacy of sewage pollution across the country. This is because wastewater treatment works are in poor, or critical, condition as a result of underinvestment and mismanagement.

It's political all over our country. And it’s not just the residents of Polokwane, Soweto and Blairgowrie or Hammanskraal who are affected, but every one of us.

The government’s own national Blue Drop audit report, released late last year, found that 46% of all water supply systems pose health risks because of bacteria, viruses and pathogens in the drinking water supply, and that nearly two-thirds (64%) of all wastewater treatment works are close to failure.

On top of this, 57% of the country’s municipalities do not notify residents when they discover that the water has been contaminated.

This is nothing but political. We got to this dire state of affairs because politicians and their accomplices at various water boards in charge of water infrastructure nationally and in local municipalities chose not to spend on planned maintenance and the repair of infrastructure.

We can only guess that maintenance money went to vanity photo-op projects of myopic short-term-thinking politicians with no vision or leadership skills, or to some or other tender with kickbacks or cadre deployment based on the insane belief that skilled water engineers and water treatment experts could be replaced by unskilled, unqualified comrades, friends and family.

And if you think I am being unfair, read the Blue Drop report. It showed that:

• Water supply systems across the country need an additional 400 qualified people – 203 technical staff and 197 scientists.


• At least 67% of water treatment works staff had no training at all over the audited period.


• Water supply system managers do not monitor the status of their water.

Current Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu and DG of Water Sean Phillips have been hard at work identifying the rot of corruption in the water department, coming up with policies and calling for tighter controls so that “water services institutions are compelled to measure, control or fix leaks on private properties, as government cannot continue to fund new infrastructure projects to supplement leakage”.

But I don’t think this is enough. We need what the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse’s executive manager of WaterCAN, Ferrial Adam, suggested: “A war room approach” to all our water challenges in every city, town, village and district in our country.

We should only give our votes to political parties who commit to enforcing budget spend on water infrastructure maintenance and repairs to stop leaks, and to professionalising every sphere of water service provision with highly skilled, qualified staff who know exactly how precious every drop of water is.

Only NGOs like Gift of the Givers should be used to supply water trucks so we can be assured that no business connection of some small-town or big-city politician or official is making a quick fortune out of maintenance failures of the past. Every life depends on this.

Do yourself and our country a favour. Ask every politician who comes knocking on your door or hustles you for a vote what their solution is to the water problem.

Don’t forget to write to me at [email protected] and I will publish your letters – or pictures, if you are more of a visual communicator – in the newspaper.

Yours in defence of truth,

Heather

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R29.