Drought officially a national disaster
New funds and resources can now be used to fight water crisis
IT IS official: the prevailing water crisis affecting four of the countries provinces has been declared a national state of disaster. Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said the declaration was gazetted at 10am yesterday.
He was briefing journalists in Parliament on behalf of the government’s inter-ministerial task team on drought and water scarcity.
“South Africa is a water-scarce country. Our climate is changing. The western parts of the country are expected to become drier and the eastern parts of the country may become wetter under climate variability. Despite this, we are rated among the highest levels of daily domestic water consumption levels per person in the world. We also have some of the highest levels of inequality in reliable access to water,” Mkhize said.
The declaration means the government can now gain access to special funds through Treasury, reserved for national disasters. Mkize said the province was a winter rainfall region and some rains was expected as early as April.
“Measures taken to mitigate the situation in the province have notably started to bear fruit; these include curtailment and restrictions. The drought-stricken Western Cape maintains the lowest dam levels in the country at 25.5%, having dropped from 26.1% the previous week.
“Despite the scarcity of rain, Gauteng has the highest dam levels at 92.8%, followed by Mpumalanga at 77.9% and Northern Cape at 67.9%.
“These levels do not however imply that these provinces are out of the woods in terms of drought conditions as water scarcity remain a common condition in most of our communities,” he said.
Mkhize said a disaster classification and the declaration of a state of disaster were different. If a disaster has been classified but not declared, then the responsible sphere of government (municipal, provincial and national) must deal with the disaster within the parameters of its existing legislation and contingency arrangements, Mkhize said.
“It is also important at this point to indicate that the declaration of a state of disaster at any level is not primarily aimed at requesting funding. It is aimed at activating extraordinary measures, which might include funding, based on the need and other relevant conditions to address the impact of such a disaster.
“Resources, both technical and financial, should be mobilised by all spheres of government, private sector and non-governmental organisations.”
Mkhize said the National Joint Drought Co-ordination Committee (NJDCC) would meet monthly and continue co-ordinating interventions in the affected provinces.
A team of research experts will be constituted to carry out on-going research and provide evidence-based interventions taking into account the prevailing and emerging disaster risk scenarios.
RESOURCES SHOULD BE MOBILISED BY ALL SPHERES OF GOVERNMENT