Parliamentary Portfolio submission:

TOWARDS A PLAN TO IMPROVE WATER QUALITY AND WATER SECURITY IN SOUTH AFRICA

21 June 2006

Approach to submission: There was a call for inputs, which highlighted points of concern for the portfolio committee. Below these are quoted or summarised in italics. Based on our experiences and organizational position statements I have included a WESSA comment on each quote. This is followed by some recommendations for practical action.

“The Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry is the custodian of South Africa's water resources in South Africa. Is thus responsible also for ensuring that our water is safe for drinking, for recreation and a for range of diverse life and sustainable economic activities.”

Comment – While legally this is the case and there are Department of Water Affair (DWAF) officials who try, the overall water picture in South Africa is gloomy because:

• The majority of SA rivers are in a highly impacted state (SOE – 80% threatened – 20% critical)
• Demand side management still seems to take second place to supply side solutions despite the rhetoric (e.g. Berg water project)
• The ecological reserve of rivers is largely not respected (e.g. Velorensvlei)
• Developments are encouraged or permitted even where water supplies are severely limited (e.g. West coast and Garden route)
• Municipalities still tend to function independently regarding water supplies and waste water management (e.g. Still Bay and Garden route)
• Natural hydrological systems like wetlands have no absolute protection (e.g. Dreamworld site)
• Industry, agriculture and mining still function with relatively little censure regarding water pollution and riverine degradation (e.g. – potato farming in the Sandveld, KZN sugar cane farming impact on river flow and banks, demands of aluminium smelters, acid pollution of water courses from mine dumps)
• Increasingly the deterioration of natural water systems can be linked with human social and health threats

Recommendation: In order to fulfil its mandate as described DWAF needs to ensure cross sectoral and inter departmental compliance with the range of national and international legislation at its disposal and publicly promote the principle that without water sustainability there can be no sustainable development.

“The National Water Act requires the Minister to establish national monitoring systems for water resources to collect appropriate data and information that is necessary to assess:

• The quantity, quality and use of water in water resources
• Compliance with resource quality objectives
• The health of aquatic ecosystems

Comment: Nationally, provincially and locally there is a huge amount of data available already. Climate change is possibly one area needing more formal research.

Recommendations:

• Before any new expensive research projects are commissioned there needs to be an integration and reconciliation of the current information available
• A water pollution tax should be used to enable the establishment of a robust inter-provincial monitoring and compliance body
• A review of current water-related climate change research should be undertaken with a view to gap filling if necessary

The challenge that faces us as a country is to promote socio-economic development, whilst maintaining a water quality that is at all times fit for use and for proper ecological functioning of aquatic ecosystems.

Comment: This is a serious challenge for an arid, sometimes water stressed country

Recommendations:

• Proper ecological functioning of aquatic ecosystems should be made the primary concern
• Socio-economic development drivers, having taken this sine qua non on board should incorporate its principles into the “business plan” so that conservation, water demand management, rehabiltation and good husbandry can be creatively integrated into socio-economic development

On a daily basis across the country, organizations and individuals impact on the water quality in our rivers, streams,groundwater and our wetlands. The consumption of untreated water is one of the main sources of disease in South Africa.

Comment: This acknowledgement is heartening. The consumption of water from a pristine source is unlikely to have major health consequences. However in some instances water is being contaminated before it gets into storage dams and then poses a risk. (E.g. Tulbagh and Voelvlei dam)

Recommendations:

• Some of the above recommendations are applicable
• Municipalities are notorious offenders when it comes to water contamination and there must be a concerted effort to ensure their compliance (as seems to be happening in Stellenbosch)

Water is a source of life but can also be a source of illness and even result in death. Safe drinking water is one on mankind's most important basic needs, and essential to good health. Our Constitution, the foundation of all the laws in our country, says that everyone has a right to have access to water - enough water to live. Our democratic government, which is in charge of our country's water, must ensure that there is clean water for all of us now and for future generations. Hazardous waste sites threaten water quality both in urban and rural lands. Pesticides and fertilizers levels in our surface water and groundwater require ongoing monitoring.

Comment: Again this acknowledgement is welcome. While the issue of free basic water supply continues to be debated more important to note is the huge and unjustifiable gap between high end and low end users even in the same sector. There are for example domestic units using more than 500 Kl per month and others using less than six Kl. Groundwater abstraction at various geological levels is increasingly being looked at as a quick solution to supply-side demand, this often with negative or unpredictable consequences.

Recommendations:

• Prodigality must be acted against robustly and high end tariffs applied to discourage wasteful water use
• All municipal domestic, hazardous waste and land-fill sites should reach compliance with national standards by a specific date to be set by DWAF
• All municipal domestic, hazardous waste and land-fill sites should reach compliance with national standards by a specific date to be set by DWAF
• Registering of all bore holes and well points should become mandatory
• Closer co-operation with the Department of Agriculture regarding farming threats as well as best practice should be initiated as there are many overlapping areas of concern

Furthermore, the National Water Act (Act No. 36 of 1998) provides a framework to protect water resources against over exploitation and also ensure that there is water for social and economic development. The Act also recognises that water belongs to the whole nation for the benefit of all people.

Comment: It should be acknowledged that the voice for social and economic development will be the loudest and will tend to drown out the noble sentiment of protecting water resources. Despite the governments ambitious and purposeful roll-out of services there are still many South Africans with very limited access to good quality water and often the poorest are paying the most per kilolitre in physical effort if not in cash to ensure supply. The project to help resource poor farmers is administratively difficult to access.

Recommendations:

• DWAF should develop a national media strategy about water demand management along the lines of the ESKOM initiative with similar incentive schemes (low flow shower heads, leak fixing kits and courses, learnerships, water tank subsidies etc)
• DWAF should seek out and deliberately support small existing water resource supply and management initiatives especially in rural areas
• Any inclination to privatise any aspect of water supply or service delivery should be approached with extreme caution and transparency as the tendency is to link such enterprises not only with the disputed notion of full cost recovery, but also with profit making. This puts additional pressure on resources and can lead to the transfer of water allocations that adversely affect both social equity and ecological integrity. (e.g. Keurbooms water allocation transfer)
• It must be recognised that the building of large dams is not a sustainable activity and that even with mitigation and the observation of WCD principles there are far reaching negative impacts. (e.g. Gariep, BWP and Staalpport) Current impoundment and inter provincial transfer plans should be reviewed
• More catchment to coast approach on the use of rivers should be adopted
• The programme for the clearance of alien invasive vegetation could be stepped up and create far more jobs
• The many existing volunteer groups associated with river, wetland, estuary and water system integrity should be formally acknowledged, used as examples for other areas and assisted with job creating funding
• Water needs to find a place in a more detailed and nationally specific way in the formal education curriculum
• There should be a precautionary approach to desalination initiatives and the licensing of these because of the additional wastewater production
• A detailed and credible plan for the reversing the current trend of river degradation needs to be instituted in consultation with the full range of stakeholders
• DWAF should encourage all municipalities to factor a climate change and water conservation/management strategy into their IDPs

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