Witnesses have painted a grim picture before an inquiry into Gauteng’s deepening water crisis, describing how years of service delivery failures, crumbling infrastructure and government mismanagement have pushed South Africa’s economic and financial hub to the brink.
This has left residents and businesses battling daily to survive and protect their livelihoods.
The three-day South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) inquiry into Gauteng’s water crisis got under way in Johannesburg on Tuesday, with community leaders painting a bleak picture of inhumane living conditions caused by persistent water leaks, raw sewage flowing through streets, collapsing infrastructure and what they described as a complete lack of accountability by authorities.
The witnesses told the inquiry that deteriorating conditions were not only affecting households but were also crippling farming communities and threatening food security, despite access to water being a constitutional right in South Africa.
The inquiry is expected to examine the extent and nature of water access challenges across provinces and the causes of recurring water shortages, infrastructure failures and service delivery breakdowns. It will look into issues of governance, planning, budgeting and infrastructure management systems; emergency response measures and intergovernmental co-ordination; as well as the effects of the crisis on affected communities and vulnerable groups.
It will also look at the role and effectiveness of municipalities and other relevant state actors.
The water outages in Gauteng prompted President Cyril Ramaphosa to establish a national water crisis committee earlier this year, which he chairs, to address the severe supply issues in Johannesburg and other parts of the country.
Last week, Ramaphosa said the national water crisis committee was dealing with immediate challenges in the most affected municipalities while changing the way that water infrastructure is funded and managed.
WaterCAN executive director Ferrial Adam told the inquiry that the Gauteng water crisis was “foreseeable yet it was exacerbated by infrastructure neglect and secrecy”.
She called on the Johannesburg metro to address the underlying problems, including infrastructure neglect and vandalism, adding “this also goes to other municipalities in the country”.
Over the next three years, the government will invest R1-trillion to build energy, water, transportation, logistics, IT and essential other infrastructure, a move that would create jobs, support local businesses and supplier development, and develop new value chains.
Chair commissioner Henk Boshoff said the inquiry would assess the government’s planning, budgeting and maintenance of the water infrastructure in the province. The session would also seek to examine the “created dependency on the water tankers”.
The water supply crisis in Gauteng’s three metros is due to increased demand and crumbling infrastructure and has seen a surge in the use of water tankers to supply residents.
Tshwane executive mayor Nasiphi Moya announced in April that the capital city had bought 41 water tankers as part of its long-term plan to address water shortages in Hammanskraal, among other areas, and that R2bn had been set aside to capacitate water and power supply infrastructure in the metro.
Federation for a Sustainable Environment CEO Mariette Liefferink said sewage pollution transformed a water supply challenge into a multidimensional socioeconomic crisis bordering on health, food security, ecological collapse and social instability.
“Sewage pollution must be treated not as a mere sanitation failure but as a human rights violation. Sewage pollution is a strategic water security threat to Gauteng and the national economy,” said Liefferink. She is among leaders fighting against pollution in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site as a result of raw sewage flowing from the malfunctioning Percy Stewart wastewater treatment plant.
Zintle Tyuku, from amandla.mobi, a community advocacy organisation, said residents of Phumlamqashi in the south of Johannesburg had gone without water for eight months, while Local Development and Economic Civil Association representative Clarice Rocha said the water crisis violated human rights, adding: “I think boreholes make more sense than the water tanker solution.”
On Monday, Gauteng infrastructure development and co-operative governance and traditional affairs MEC Jacob Mamabolo called on the province’s 11 municipalities to invest in procuring and maintaining their own water tanker fleets, after R264m was spent on water tanker services over the past three years.
Business Day reported in August 2024 that Tshwane was grappling with a water tanker mafia operating in the city and had spent an estimated R98m on water tankers per year.
Luyolo Mkentane
www.businesslive.co.za
