Letter: Limpopo water crisis – DA vindicated by SAHRC findings

Lindy Wilson Member of Parlement Limpopo – DA Provincial Spokesperson for CoGHSTA, writes:

The DA will closely monitor the 26 recommendations made by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) on Access to Water and the Efficacy of Water Services Authorities in Limpopo.

The DA is vindicated that the SAHRC has confirmed what we already have been stating: that there is no good story to tell and access to water is not available to large parts of Limpopo.

Over the last decade, the DA conducted multiple oversights, laid complaints with the SAHRC, and opened criminal cases against officials who disregard the people’s constitutional right to water, to no avail.

The SAHRC report highlighted the following concerns:

Only 49% of Limpopo has a reliable supply of water.

In the 2021/22 Financial Year, Limpopo Municipalities only spent 1,8% of the value of total infrastructure assets, which is far below the National Treasury norm of 8%.

All the Water Service Authorities (WSA’s) in Limpopo were found to be non-compliant with the Water Services Act and Compulsory Standards, or in violation of their obligations to supply water to some of the communities within their jurisdiction.

CoGHSTA (Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs) had not effectively carried out its role as an oversight body in terms of ensuring that access to water is a reality within the Limpopo Province.

Limpopo Municipalities have underspent on their Water Services Infrastructure Grants or used the grant monies for other purposes.

The Blue Drop report for 2022 found that in Limpopo, 59% of the WSA’s do not comply with microbiological determinants, which indicates microbiological failures and a serious health risk to the consumers in these areas, and only 10% have sufficient microbiological samples based on population size.

In response, CoGHSTA tried to convince the SAHRC, that in fact there is a good story to tell in Limpopo, and that, with the exception of Sekhukhune, up to 90% of people have access to piped water.

The figures they presented were horribly misleading.

People who have to walk kilometers to communal taps, which very often are not working as a result of theft of borehole pumps and failed infrastructure, cannot be considered as having access to piped water.

The SAHRC’s 26 recommendations to the WSA’s and oversight authorities, CoGHSTA, and the Premier include investigations into grant applications and expenditure and concluded by saying

“This report is a wake-up call to the Government to accelerate the pace of ensuring that the right of access to sufficient water is the Limpopo Province, and the entire country does not remain an illusory dream for many.”

The DA will not sit by while people have to dig holes for water or are forced to use contaminated sources of water as a means of survival. The ANC should be ashamed.