‘South Africa has no water crisis, only capacity issues’ – Minister Mchunu

Despite longstanding problems on access to clean drinking water, Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu is adamant that the country has no water crisis but a lack of efficient management and skills.

The minister on Tuesday addressed media on the state of water supply.

“South Africa doesn’t have water crisis…we have no problems regarding the availability of water in the country.

“Most dams are full during the rainy season. Take Gqeberha for example, dams are more than 70% full there, but water was not safe to drink…we took a collective view that we have capacity problems.”

Inefficient skills and management, lack of infrastructure maintenance and aging water works equipment such as pipelines marred South Africa’s ability to supply clean and safe drinking water.

To supplement available water sources, government is increasingly developing access to underground water to meet the demand. Other sources include the expansion of the Lesotho highland water project and public private partnerships at struggling municipalities.

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The minister said studies showed that South Africa will not have enough water supplies to meet demand by 2025. With the country being water scarce and ranking as 30th driest, more sources such as public private partnerships to help municipalities with ailing water treatment systems were needed.

“Mogalakwena [municipality in Limpopo] has signed a partnership agreement with mining company, which will see mine build and operate a water treatment plant. The plant will then be handed over to the municipality after 3 years.”

Ground water, said Mchunu, is an important source that accounted for 13% of the country’s total supply and is mostly wholly relied upon in rural areas.

“As climate change gets worse, groundwater will become more and more critical. As a department, we are committed to exploring ground water as an alternative source to ensure water security in communities affected by water challenges.”

ALSO READ: Polokwane faces water crisis ‘due to operational challenges’

Vaal River cleanup

Meanwhile, work was underway to clean up the Vaal River system.

Despite it being Gauteng’s important water source, the Vaal remains heavily polluted by sewage that flows from non-functioning wastewater treatment plants, forming sludge across the river.

Residents have to live with sewage spillage into their homes, posing health hazard to humans.

The minister said Rand Water has been appointed to lead the clean up system and unblocking of the clogged pumps.

“We have a technical team led by Rand Water and political heads for oversight. We appointed a civil engineer who reports to us every week on the progress.

“People have been under siege for a long time and that is regrettable, we want to assure them that work is underway and that will be in the past soon. Our priority is to remove sewerage from residential areas.”

The department held a summit in February, where delegates tackled problems and solutions on water and sanitation.

Mchunu remarked that timelines were set and agreed upon.

“We are working on mechanisms to implement the proposed actions. Overall, we are focusing on
increasing water supply to households and businesses,” he said.

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