Water department dysfunctional – report

The South African Water Caucus (SAWC) report on the state of the department of water and sanitation lifts the lid on dysfunction and institutional paralysis.

The report is almost entirely based on publicly accessible information.

This includes parliamentary questions and answers, portfolio committee meeting reports, information from access to information requests and media articles.

The report reveals severe institutional and governance problems in the department.

It lays bare the deterioration in financial management, service delivery, policy coherence and performance.

The central challenges facing the department, as outlined in the report, are:

Deterioration in waste water treatment works and infrastructure due to lack of maintenance and investment, with the findings of the 2014 Green Drop report indicating that 212 plants fall within the “critical risk” categorisation.

This poses a serious risk of untreated sewage entering rivers, streams and dams. Were this to happen, it would have a dire impact on water quality and human health and the spread of diseases such as e.coli, hepatitis A and diarrhoea;

The department also has considerable human resource and organisational problems. Senior managers have been suspended, there is a high staff turnover and vacancy rate and capacity constraints are increasing.

There is serious financial mismanagement including overexpenditure, accruals and failure to pay contractors and corresponding escalation of debts and overdrafts.

The Water Trading Entity is in debt to the SA Reserve Bank and there are allegations of irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, poor revenue collection and corruption.

The SA Water Caucus is a network of more than 20 community based organisations, nongovernmental organisations and trade unions that are actively promoting the protection and provision of water. – Citizen reporter