The comments by the auditor-general on the Department of Water’s Mzimvubu Dam Project focused on obvious financial issues — like how a project can be so poorly budgeted that it doubles in cost from R14bn to R28bn, before a contract is even awarded. (Water project a mess, says Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu, November 3). But Makwetu missed another key issue. The rationale for the dam was to generate hydroelectricity and provide water for farmers. But Eskom does not want the electricity and local agricultural agencies don’t want the water. Rather than work with them to develop a useful project, Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane decided to build the dam anyway, to provide what will be one of the most expensive rural water supply schemes in the world. There is a lot of water and land (and people and potential) in the Mzimvubu River basin. But it will take a lot of hard work and collaboration to develop realistic proposals to use it. The minister clearly does not find that an...
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