The DA has called for honest communication from the government at local and national levels after the water crisis that has seen taps dry up in many Gauteng communities, while threatening that should the challenge persist, the party will take legal action.
In a media briefing on Wednesday, the DA blamed the ANC-led government for the collapse, claiming this was compounded by an “arrogant” Rand Water.
DA federal council chair and Johannesburg mayoral candidate Helen Zille said the party had taken a decision to take the City of Johannesburg and Johannesburg Water to court.
She said the DA have been consulting their lawyers since last year.
“They’ve been reading every document we can provide for them on the water crisis. They have looked at the water plan, the water recovery plan that was adopted by the Johannesburg council two years ago, and they say we have a clear case to go to court.”
Zille said money is being diverted and deflected away from the most critical areas of service delivery failure where it should be spent.
“The first point is water is an absolute constitutional right. It’s not a nice-to-have. It’s a right that a local government must make sure every one of its citizens realises. Then we look at the extent to which that right has been violated. I was in a place yesterday [Tuesday] in Selby, which is the site of many factories. They have been without water since July last year. But true to form, on the corner of Broad Street and another street in the middle of Selby, there is water gurgling out of a burst pipe, yet the factories haven’t had water for eight months.
“The next point the lawyers say is a killer point is that though there is a water turnaround strategy, it is not being implemented, and it is not being funded. We won’t be telling them what to do; we’ll just say, ‘Do what the city has pledged to do when it accepted the water turnaround strategy.’”
Zille said the city was failing to allocate money for the turnaround, claiming it was sweeping the water account of the money. She said the party will seek an order that holds the city to account, ensures it implements the turnaround strategy to end the crisis and fulfils its constitutional duty to provide residents and businesses with access to clean and reliable water.
“The DA also will put to residents a plan to fix things which is largely contained in our contributions to the turnaround strategy. It brings ring-fence funding for water. It means fixing or replacing at least 120km of pipe per year. Cape Town, in the past year, replaced 167km of water and sewage pipes. That was more than three times the number of kilometres of Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni put together. That sort of investment in infrastructure is what you need if you want to prevent a crisis like this.
“We are going to take steps to make Johannesburg Water, Rand Water and the national government treat water as the priority it is. We are going to ensure the money is ring-fenced, that the infrastructure budget is there, that the maintenance budget is there, that we fix the foremost critical systems that are on the verge of collapse, that we ensure backup systems in case of emergency, and that we do away with illegal connections via stricter management. We have to do that. We cannot lose as much water as we’re losing at the moment.”
Zille said at least 46% of all water in Johannesburg is non-revenue water, and much of that is lost to leaks.
Gauteng has an abundance of water, with the Vaal Dam at 100% capacity, and the recent rain ensured a water supply.
“Meanwhile, taps for residents have been dry in some places for almost a month. It is inhumane that in a democracy, water runs but there’s none for the millions of Gauteng residents who need it.”
DA spokesperson on water and sanitation Stephen Moore said: “Leaks, bursts, failed pressure management, neglected maintenance, faulty and missing meters and theft describe the reality for crowded residents. This is why, while residents are paying for the basic resource, they see their hard-earned money fall into incompetent or corrupt hands.”
Moore said the crisis was a long time coming and it could have been prevented.
He accused Gauteng municipalities of failing to take action.
“When you defer maintenance year after year, when you do not fix leaks aggressively, when you allow pressure problems to continue, the network deteriorates, losses rise, the buffer disappears, and then when a single stress event happens, pumps break. Homemade pump stations break twice, and suddenly, the system is in crisis, like we have currently. There’s no magical fix.”
Moore said as a water-scarce country which is growing more vulnerable to climate change, the department of water and sanitation, via the R53bn Lesotho Highlands water project phase two, was supposed to bring more water to Gauteng.
“However, they’ve also dropped the ball severely.
“That is why the only immediate solution is to stop wasting what we have. Fix the leaks, fix the pressure and restore maintenance discipline. Municipalities carry the primary responsibility. The scale of leaks we see in Gauteng is the predictable result of political choices.”
He said Johannesburg has failed to prioritise maintenance, adding there was weak consequence management where people failing do not suffer consequences, with a culture of reacting after failure rather than preventing it.
TimesLIVE
Lizeka Tandwa
www.timeslive.co.za
