Minister wants Amatola to take over all water services in province
Water & sanitation minister Senzo Mchunu is forging ahead with plans to transfer water provision status from all Eastern Cape district and local municipalities to the troubled Amatola Water Board.
In the government gazette this week, Mchunu said he wanted to extend the area Amatola Water serviced to cover the entire Eastern Cape.
The board has been a water provision authority in some parts of the province, and other district municipalities done the same in their jurisdictions.
Mchunu has given interested parties until mid-january to object. The DA said this week that appointing the board to service the entire province was a “guaranteed administrative and operational recipe for disaster”.
Amatola Water now services all local municipalities under the ADM, parts of BCM, most of Chris Hani district, Ndlambe and small portions of Sarah Baartman and Joe Gqabi districts. Many municipalities have their own water service units, with sale of water an important source of municipal revenue.
In recent years, the board has struggled with water provision in the areas it services, engulfed by challenges such as administration instability and corruption and mismanagement allegations yet Mchunu now wants the scope extended.
In the government gazette of November 14, Mchunu said a number of factors were considered before reaching the decision. “The department has reviewed the water boards in terms of financial sustainability, servicing areas that are not now serviced, and institutional confusion caused by having multiple water boards servicing the same province. The purpose of the review of the water boards is to strengthen the capacity in the province, leveraging on existing technical skills ... to improve institutional efficiencies and rationalise the number of institutions in the water sector, to ensure economies of scale, maintain financial viability and enhance the ability to raise capital from the market for infrastructure projects.
“It is to enable water boards to better support water services authorities, to ensure transformation and improved governance and ensure all geographical areas are serviced.”
He said after sessions with provincial governments, water services authorities and water boards on governance, financial viability, accountability and broader service delivery issues, a decision was taken to review the water boards.
On Sunday, spokesperson Nosisa Sogayise said Amatola Water Board “welcomes and appreciates” the move, and “the task will be evaluated accordingly, while we are aware of the challenges facing the organisation which are currently receiving attention.”
DA MPL Vicky Knoetze said on Friday appointing the Amatola Water Board to service the entire Eastern Cape was a recipe for disaster and her party would lodge an objection.
“This ill-conceived move can only lead to unmitigated disaster for the province.
“The decision will decimate revenue streams of municipalities that would fall under the board,” she said.
“This is the same Amatola Water Board that was handed over to the Special Investigating Unit by President Cyril Ramaphosa in August, after serious allegations of corruption and maladministration.
“It is the same Amatola Water whose staff went on strike earlier this year, leaving thousands of BCM residents without water for weeks, while it failed to pay contractors, thus delaying critical upgrades to the Nooitgedacht Water Scheme at a time when Nelson Mandela Bay was facing day zero.”
“We cannot give control of such a precious resource, in a water-scarce province, to allegedly corrupt individuals who could exploit their position for personal gain.
“Instead, there should rather be an effort to capacitate water authorities to effectively discharge their responsibilities and investment in developing new, and upgrading existing, provincial water infrastructure,” she said.
This ill-conceived move can only lead to an unmitigated disaster for the province