Construction of new water pipeline causes tiff between farmers

POLOKWANE – A disagreement that has been brewing for some years regarding water rights and usage has errupted following the farming venture ZZ2’s plans to transfer water currently used on Kareebosch farm to two other farms more than 20kms away by means of a pipeline.

Farmers in the Doornbult/Kareebosch area are worried about the possible transfer of the water quota from Kareebosch, situated north-west of Polokwane to the farm Rietpol and from there to another farm, Rietgat.

ZZ2 apparently wants to move Kareebosch’s production activities to the two other farms, where climate conditions are better for optimal production and a higher yield is expected. ZZ2 has been farming on Kareebosch for the past 20 years.

Construction of the pipeline transferring the water is to commence soon and transfer of the water with the line is planned to start by May 2015, according to the minutes of a meeting with the Sand River Water Users Forum (SRWUF) earlier this month.

Fears were expressed by farmers at a meeting of the SRWUF early this month that ZZ2 might pump more water from the river than it is currently using and farmers in the area might be disadvantaged. The meeting was called after farmers over whose farms the proposed pipeline would run were informed about the proposed transfer of the water to the other farms.

The initial disagreement emanated from the usage of ZZ2 of another servitude (a registered right that a person or institution has over the immovable property of another) since around 2007/8 and a 12-inch pipeline that was laid to transfer water from municipal land to Kareebosch. This, according to farmers below the ZZ2 abstraction point, affected the flow of the river and their water levels, as water from the river could not be pumped any more.

According to attorney Louwrens de Jager, who is also a farmer in the area, the servitude had already expired in 1971 because previous owners did not exercise their rights in accordance with the servitude. Since 1971 to 2001, nobody used the servitude. According to law, the servitude expires after not being used for over 30 years and a new servitude had to be registered, De Jager explained. He said no new servitude was registered. De Jager is one of the farmers lodging an objection with Ages Africa Geo-environmental Services, the company that is managing the process to establish the new pipeline to Rietgat and Rietpol for ZZ2.

De Jager said no record or contract could be found at the Polokwane Municipality for the contract to extract the water. The municipality, according to an agreement with the forum, is supposed to pump 9,4Ml treated waste-water into the river daily for use of people along the river. According to the minutes of the SRWUF meeting, one of ZZ2’s owners, Philé van Zyl said ZZ2 had water rights to use “around” two million cubic litres per annum from the Sand River.

He said farmers through whose farms the new pipelines would run, had already been informed. He said the enterprise wanted to retain its water-use rights by using the full quota allocated to them, as they might lose their quota if they did not use the full quota. Production had already been scaled down on Kareebosch, he said.

The minutes further indicate that Van Zyl said if ZZ2 was not currently using the full quota it would do so soon, as all farmers should have a surplus quota in case of droughts.

He said no shortcuts would be taken in the process, as the input costs were too high to jeopardise the process. It would cost around R800 000 per annum to transfer the water to the other two farms. Van Zyl said ZZ2 was not planning to take other farmers’ water, and measures were being taken to reassure those affected by the transfer.

Another farmer from the area, who wished to remain anonymous, expressed the sentiment that farmers should take other farmers into consideration. Currently the part not used by ZZ2 was being used by other farmers, he said. Fears were also expressed that there were no guarantees that ZZ2 would not farm on Kareebosch again following the establishment of the pipeline. Review e-mailed some questions in this regard to Van Zyl on January 16 and made a second request some days later, but was referred to Ages Africa Geo-environmental Services on January 21 for the information requested.

Van Zyl said the project was currently the subject of a public participatory process managed by Ages Africa Geo-environmental Services in Polokwane. They had already initiated a process to engage the public as per the legal requirements, he said.

At the time of going to print Review was awaiting their response.

Van Zyl said a public meeting had already been held to which all interested parties were invited.