Still no access to water
Officials accused of lack of vision
IT IS unacceptable that many poor black South Africans are still without equitable access to water, even though some of them live “within spitting distance” of major dams, parliament’s portfolio committee on water affairs has told senior Water Affairs Department officials.
The officials were also told that while the review of water policy was necessary, it was taking too long and people had to get access to water now – especially those living close to dams but who still had to draw their drinking water from streams.
And the officials were ac- cused of lacking vision in dealing with a substantial backlog of water-use licence applications.
During a briefing in parliament yesterday, portfolio committee chairman Johnny de Lange told the officials establishing equitable access to water and efficient licensing was “the heart and soul of the department”.
De Lange could not understand why there was still such a backlog of unprocessed applications – 1 142, of which 213 are from before 2010 – especially as the committee had been told that a dedicated unit of “40-to50” staff members was being set up to deal with this.
While the department had previously presented “beautiful plans” to his committee, it was clear that it did not have a “slick engine to drive the processing of applications and make it work”, De Lange charged, adding, “it makes me sick to the stomach.”
Helgard Muller, chief director of water services, told the committee that compulsory water licensing – the process whereby all water allocated within a particular catchment was “taken back” by the state and potential users had to reapply in a compulsory licensing process – had been introduced in only three catchments thus far. (South Africa is divided into 19 catchment management areas.)
Catchments
While some catchments were fully allocated and waterstressed, there was irrigation water available for about 100 000 hectares in other catchments that could be used as “a quick win”.
“That is a concern for us – why has (this water) not been taken up?” Muller said.
De Lange told the officials to return “very soon” with a list of how much water was still available in what catchments.
The policy review would take a lot of time “and we can’t wait,” he said.
“Equity (in water provision) is probably the most important thing and I especially want you to concentrate on people living close to dams who don’t have access to water...
“We’re 20 years into our democracy and black people, and especially poor black people, are not getting the benefit of this absolutely vital water. I’m just not understanding why we’re taking so much time.”
The committee was told that 4 171 water-use licence applications had been finalised thus far, most of which (40 percent) were in the forestry sector, followed by agriculture (29 percent) and mining (18 percent).
A lack of information provided by the applicants was the reason for most of the 1 142 outstanding applications, the department said.