LETTER: SA’s water management needs to be in the hands of professionals

After excellent rains for the past three summers due to the first triple-dip La Niña events in 50 years, the dams that supply SA’s central plateau are full. But it is not about how full the dams are but how long they will last. Based on the historic trend of El Niño southern oscillation events and current climate models it is likely the current La Niña event will revert to an El Niño state in future, bringing with it decreased rainfall.

SA is experiencing water outages across the country due to the collapse of various systems. Water delivery infrastructure at municipal level has all but collapsed across the country, and many communities have had to take to the streets and the courts in a desperate endeavour to get the attention of uninterested, unqualified politicians/public servants.

Water expert Anthony Turton warned in a paper delivered at the fourth Brics Academic Forum in New Delhi, India, as far back as 2012 that “the most important risk is derived from the fact that the most developed economy in the entire southern African region — SA — has reached the limit of its readily available water and the dam building era is over”. The issue he was highlighting was that future deficits cannot be met by means of traditional water resource management.

Over the years Prof Turton has highlighted that the future water deficit can be solved through the re-use of water and that desalination of seawater and neutralised acid mine drainage will be important components. With high population growth and demand for water increasing at 3% per annum, demand will soon outstrip supply unless sustainable plans are developed to close the looming water deficit. Current research reveals that only 4% to 5% is currently reused wastewater.

Developing a water reuse and desalination strategy is a multi- billion rand project, but with the fiscus currently under severe pressure the cost of this most important of all projects needs to be urgently funded. Phase 2 of the Lesotho Highlands development, which was due to deliver an additional 490-million m³ of water per annum from 2015, will not be completed until 2028. The delay was due to a combination of inexperience and attempted state capture resulting in an additional cost of R1bn per year. The cost of Phase 2 has increased from R15.5bn to R32.5bn.

The department of water & sanitation has proved to be grossly incompetent, with a string of inept ministers and nine directors general appointed over a 10-year period. The country’s freshwater resources are stressed on all fronts by unsustainable water consumption patterns, increasing water demands, failing infrastructure, unreliable or non-existent water and sanitation services and continued pollution. This is due to poor or nil infrastructure maintenance, with many questionable economic empowerment companies gifted tenders without the necessary technical skills.

The lesson for the country is captured in an excellent article by Mashupye Maserumule, professor of public affairs at Tshwane University of Technology, “SA has a plan to make its public service professional. It’s time to act on it”, published in August: “It is almost 30 years into democracy and SA does not have a professional service. Two key initiatives to build state capacity through professionalisation of the public service are under way. One is the Public Service Act Amendment Act and the other is the draft Public Service Commission Bill, which is yet to be tabled.’

The Public Service Amendment Bill devolves administrative powers to the directors-general who are the heads of government departments. It was the late Ben Turok who said public servants should be employed not deployed, they should have security of tenure and the public service should be independent and not subject to the whims of individual politicians.

The aforementioned bills are long overdue. The ills besetting the country in large measure are due to inept politicians constantly changing directors general and destroying the institutional memory of departments. The president upon his appointment said the public service must be staffed by men and women who are professional, skilled, selfless and honest.

It is time for the president to act on it. Incompetence and the meddling of politicians is destroying the functioning of government. Our precious water management needs to be in the hands of professionals.

Neil Garden
Edenvale

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