Water minister wants issues resolved
WATER and Sanitation Minister Gugile Nkwinti is working towards overcoming the water problems bedevilling the country.
During a visit to Hartbeespoort Dam at the weekend, Nkwinti told a joint meeting of his department, Madibeng Municipality and North West government representatives that the water and sanitation problems plaguing the country should be jointly tackled by the three tiers of government.
He said he had written letters to the nine premiers of the nine provinces, inviting them to be part of a joint centre to tackle the water problems, because “we have one government with three different spheres”.
Nkwinti is convinced that the water and sanitation crises are due in part to the fact that the three tiers of government are not assisting each other to tackle the problems head-on, because the various tiers have different limitations that could be obviated by another level of government.
When Nkwinti took up the water and sanitation portfolio earlier this year, he vowed to work together with the provincial governments and the municipalities to overcome the water and sanitation crises.
He believes that the country cannot afford to politicise the water and sanitation service delivery mandate, because the water shortage would affect the economy, communities and industries.
He told delegates at the Hartbeespoort Dam meeting that as long as social conditions in the townships had not been improved, the country’s dams and rivers would continue to be plagued by water pollution.
Politicians are not aware of the upstream pollution problems that emanate from community settlements along the rivers, he pointed out.
It was up to the Department of Water and Sanitation officials to articulate these problems to the politicians, because officials have the technical knowledge but were underestimating the value of their input, the minister said.
The water and sanitation officials needed to change their attitude because the country needed them to be a catalysts for proper service delivery, he added.
Nkwinti called on the water and sanitation officials to work together with the provincial and municipal officials to address the water problems.
“Officials should recommend to a minister what should be done, because they are the ones who are trained in water usage,” Nkwinti said.
He pledged to meet with the municipalities on a quarterly basis to thrash out any problems that might occur regarding water and sanitation. He also instructed that the fish population in Hartbeespoort Dam should be reintroduced to increase their numbers.
The minister said the various spheres of government should improve the conditions of the townships situated along the rivers to curb further pollution.
“We also need to facilitate access to Hartbeespoort Dam to prevent racial conflict. People want to visit the dam for various reasons,” he told the gathering.
Nkwinti’s statement followed reports submitted at the meeting that some of the poorer communities were being barred from visiting the dam, which is also used as a resort for recreation purposes by the country’s rich communities, who use their boats to enjoy the facilities.
The meeting was informed that the dam was situated on land where some communities in North West were previously forcibly removed in the previous dispensation.
The dam area is also the subject of a land claim.
The minister announced that the blue/green drop water assessment of dams which commenced in 2008 and was later abandoned would be reintroduced in the various municipalities to assess the quality of water at various water projects. Such assessment reports would be submitted to the cabinet, he added.
Hartbeespoort Dam is vital to the economic development of the country because it provides water to some of the country’s electricity-generating plants such as Medupi, as well as the agricultural sector.
The pollution in Hartbeespoort Dam comes from communities in the metros of Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg.
The Department of Water and Sanitation needs to work with the three metros and the relevant departments such as Environmental Affairs to address the pollution in Hartbeespoort Dam.
One of the aspects that have held back the cleaning of pollutants in the dam was the lack of adequate finances, because some of the municipalities plead poverty when they are called upon to buy chemicals to purify the water.
It was for this reason that the meeting felt that those who were responsible for polluting the dam should be made to pay for the cleaning up process.
It was also felt that the Department of Water and Sanitation should be proactive and issue its own media statements about Hartbeespoort Dam before journalists could come up with their stories, which have mostly been negative in the past.
Video footage taken by a national television programme was shown to demonstrate to the delegates the amount of negative publicity that Hartbeespoort Dam had received in the past in the media.
Delegates urged the minister to address the issue of access to the dam regarding the implication of racial relations.
The minister was further requested to visit the dam more often in order to resolve the problems that have beset the area.
Nkwinti has been visiting the various problematic areas in the country to assess the water and sanitation situation for himself.
Recently, he visited Mangaung Municipality in Bloemfontein where he held meetings with the mayor and other stakeholders, including officials from the Department of Water and Sanitation. He also recently visited Koster Municipality in North West following a series of protests. He has already visited Clanwilliam Dam in the Western Cape and the Giyani water project.
Private institutions that deal with water and sanitation have invited the minister to pen the forewords of their magazines. He has also been lined up to address various water and sanitation conferences.
Mxotwa is a director and spokesperson for the Water and Sanitation minister.