Water crisis continues

As KZN’s water crisis continues to bite deep into the lives of its citizens, the response from the government appears indifferent at best and negligent at worst.

This was a sentiment shared by the DA KZN spokesperson on Health, Edwin Baptie.
In September last year, Baptie said the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) released its much-awaited report on the crisis, classifying the situation as a human rights violation.

He said the commission went on to confirm what KZN’s citizens already know – mismanagement, corruption, neglect, poor planning and the decimation of institutional capacity through cadre deployment and tender fraud are ruining the province.

“The crisis has already severely impacted the delivery of health services in KZN, with the Department of Health having to direct funds toward the establishment of backup water supplies to the detriment of direct health services. This while ongoing eThekwini infrastructure failures have left many communities without water for months. The scenario is all too familiar for residents of KZN’s Ugu District – they have faced it daily for decades. Water shedding, pipe failures, unpaid electricity accounts causing pump stoppages, labour unrest, sabotage, the absence of tanker services and unrehabilitated excavations are all common features throughout UGU that are only getting worse,” he said.

Meanwhile, added Baptie, the incapacity or unwillingness of local municipal authorities to communicate effectively with customers has placed Democratic Alliance (DA) public representatives in the firing line of irate citizens.
“They simply have no one else to turn to other than those councillors who go the extra mile to facilitate responses and information sharing. What is evident in all of this is that KZN’s Taliban faction ANC-run government has not taken the SAHRC recommendations seriously. Instead, they are preoccupied with internal conflicts and playing musical chairs ahead of the election. The civil protests we are witnessing are a direct and inevitable product of the negligent attitude that continues to threaten the lives and livelihoods of our province’s people. What can’t be alleviated is the failure of bulk water supply – a growing feature of the crisis. It is time that the National Department of Water and Sanitation stepped in with interventions that recognise the scale of KZN’s disaster,” he said, adding that the DA will continue to pursue this cause through every means at our disposal. It underscores our desire to rescue the province and start the rebuilding process.”

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