Vandalism costs Western Cape dam R18 million a year

Although the Theewaterskloof Dam in the Western Cape usually operates at full capacity, it faces significant challenges due to vandalism, resulting in reported losses of R18 million annually.

The Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation received a report following an oversight visit to the Western Cape in August.

The committee heard that while the Western Cape is susceptible to drought events, with the last severe drought experienced in 2016/17, its water supply system was reported to be at 94% full due to good winter rain this year.

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The Theewaterskloof Dam boasted 100% capacity during the oversight visit.

However, the municipality faces a major issue with the vandalism of water infrastructure, contributing to water losses of approximately 35%, valued at R18 million per year.

“The Western Cape water supply challenges include vandalism of infrastructure, the high vacancy rate on maintenance of teams. Vandalism of infrastructure is rife across the scheme,” the committee heard.

“Areas such as Drakenstein are the worst-hit. It includes vandalism and the theft of pumps and other structures made of precious metals. However, security guards are being utilised to secure the key infrastructure.”

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The Theewaterskloof Municipality is also struggling with a lack of funding for its water development plan.

“It wants assistance to apply for funding from the water services infrastructure grant.”

Dam projects taking ‘too long’

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Member of Parliament Mathibe Mohlala expressed frustration at the prolonged timelines for dam projects, despite significant financial investment.

“We understand that it takes a while to build a bulk water infrastructure, but we’re talking about the delay where the department will make a plan that in 10 years; time we will be done with this dam. But in ten years’ time the dam is not done, nothing is happening,” said Mohlala.

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“Let’s talk about the Umzimvubu dam[Umzimvubu Water Project], there are a lot of dams, even the Clanwilliam Dam, which are delays caused by the irresponsibility of the government—people who are leading.”

Mohlala said the committee should not refrain from calling out delays in water projects as they affect service delivery.

“With the issue of finance, malfeasance and corruption taking place. We don’t need to talk about this like we’re the department, we’re the portfolio committee and we need to hit hard where it’s possible,” said Mohlala.

“The department must see how it deals with those things, ours is to make sure that we provide oversight to the department. Where we don’t see things properly, we must be able to state [them] properly, and not shy away [from] saying them.

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“Yes, sometimes they’re not given enough money, but where they do get enough, it sometimes does not reach the correct places or doesn’t get handled properly.”

Water projects

During a media briefing earlier this month, Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina announced her department would continue with the implementation of 14 major water infrastructure projects across the country.

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The projects, that will cost the department R10 billion, include the R42 billion for the second phase of the Lesotho Highlands Water project to supply additional water to Gauteng, the R28 billion construction of a new dam and transfer tunnel on the uMkhomazi River in KwaZulu Natal to supply additional water to eThekwini and surrounding municipalities, the R6.5 billion to raise the Clanwilliam Dam wall in the Western Cape and the R750 million to raise the Tzaneen Dam wall in Limpopo.