Private dam owners to assist the waterless
Minister urged to ensure scarce resource is shared among needy
PARLIAMENT’S select committee on social services has called on the Department of Water and Sanitation to move swiftly to come to an agreement with private dams owners to assist areas without water in the country.
There are 5 511 dams in the country, with the state owning 854. There was a strong message from members of Parliament that dams should benefit the state and those without water.
ANC MP Lungelwa Lynette Zwane said: “The private ownership of dams is a political tool, like land. Just before the democratic government took over, the land was privatised. Now municipalities are not able to expand government. It can’t be right. The state owns only a few of these dams, and the private sector more of these. Maybe it is the negotiation settlements that compromised us.
“There are always people protesting for water, but you have about 4 000 people who own dams. This side, you have people protesting for water, but on the other side you have people on boats enjoying water. This cannot be right. This is an area that the minister must restore,” said Zwane.
Water and Sanitation Minister Gugile Nkwinti assured Parliament his ministry was on top of a plan to rescue the ailing department.
“There is a structure that will change water resources and services. We can’t have a situation where we have white farmers owning water in the country. Water is a public good in terms of our constitution
“We will also restructure the department to allow smooth operation of accountability and managing the department (sic),” said Nkwinti.
Meanwhile, Parliament has called for amendments to the Public Finance Management Act to assist the National Treasury in strengthening departments facing “governance and financial management challenges”.
The amendments would allow Treasury to intervene in certain cases involving government departments.
Parliament’s portfolio committee on water and sanitation expressed concern following Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu’s report which flagged the department for incurring billions of rand in irregular expenditure.
The irregular expenditure as a result of deviations not approved by Treasury amounted to R2.4 billion, while fruitless and wasteful expenditure was flagged in the department’s Giyani, Nandoni and Mopani water projects.
Committee chairperson Lulu Johnson said: “The challenges at the department started emerging around the 2014/2015 financial year and you would have thought that some corrective measures would have been put in place to remedy the situation. The lack of these intervention measures has resulted in a dysfunctional department, barely able to deliver on its core mandate…
“We need a mechanism that will enable the National Treasury urgently to intervene in necessary cases,” said Johnson.
The wasteful expenditure was attributed to excessive project management, professional fees and construction costs.