Redistribution of water will accelerate transformation
CLIMATE change in South Africa has brought untold misery among citizens that has resulted in a massive backlog in water infrastructure maintenance, investment and the recurrent drought in parts of the country.
The crisis is having a significant impact on economic growth and the well-being of the country’s citizens.
A master plan of the Department of Water and Sanitation states that unless the challenges are tackled head-on, the situation may slide into chaos.
This emerged at an interactive session on the transformation of the water sector in Boksburg where delegates and stakeholders from the water sector debated contentious water issues with Water and Sanitation Minister Gugile Nkwinti.
The interactive session was meant to inform the current status of transformation in the sector, including what obstacles have delayed transformation to date, how they can be overcome and create a common vision and approach to move forward with this non-negotiable transformation in the sector.
The national water and sanitation master plan that seeks to enable the targets set out in the National Development Plan vision for 2030 outline that redistributing water for transformation is crucial.
This is to ensure that the use of water for production purposes is equitable; making sure that the governance of water is representative and ensuring access to decent water and sanitation services for all.
Delegates felt that despite policy and legislative tools intended to enable transformation of water allocation in order to compensate for the historical racial discrimination in access to water, little has been achieved since the National Water Act was introduced in 1998.
According to the master plan, agriculture uses 95% of water among white commercial farmers.
The existing lawful use, says the master plan, was originally intended as a transitional arrangement. However, 20 years after the water act was introduced, the agricultural sector remains the biggest user of water in the country. Expressing their frustration, emerging farmers complained bitterly about the lack of access to water and the challenges they faced in getting water allocated for farming.
This frustrates them in the development of their enterprise as the pressure to reallocate water to achieve more equitable water use remains high.
The frustrated farmers, who are mainly black, requested that the department give them some grace before the water licensing policy is applied to them.
They are inhibited in their work, especially in the rural areas, by the lack of water infrastructure.
In order to effect transformation, the department will make water available in government water schemes to emerging farmers to enable them to conduct their business.
The benefit for farmers to register their water use lies in their lawful claim to use water legally which will exonerate them from being prosecuted for non-compliance.
While the restitution of agricultural land has been slower than planned, the reallocation of water has not always kept pace with the transfer of that land.
In some cases, the previous owners traded away their existing lawful water use rights, so that the water allocation is not transferred to land reform beneficiaries.
Ironically more than 70% of commercial farms in South Africa are owned by white farmers. According to the master plan, water demand must be reduced by improving efficiency, adopting new technologies and reducing losses, especially in the agricultural activity through water awareness and strict regulations and incentives.
The implementation plan for the national water and sanitation resources and services strategy, which is reviewed every five years, is to address the issues confronting the water sector.
The process of launching Water and Sanitation’s Phakisa will bring together the key players in the water sector that seeks to address their challenges.
The results of this national engagement will be included in subsequent updates of both the plan and the strategy.