municipalities comment
This should be a wake-up call
While it is always good to drive home the point that the country’ s citizens must step up and save water— especially in light of the current water crisis— it is perhaps pertinent to ask when government will put up its hand and take responsibility for its part in creating the problem.
Sure, South Africa is in the midst of its worst drought in decades and that cannot be blamed on government. However, a lot can be said for the state’ s failure to prepare for this calamity adequately. After all, the drought did not sneak up on us without warning and water experts have been saying for years that the country is facing a looming water shortage, unless something drastic is done in terms of infrastructure development, upgrades and maintenance.
Does this sound familiar? Well, it should. Similar warnings were issued years before the country started running out of electricity, but instead of acting, those at the helm sat and passively watched as the situation worsened, until load-shedding arrived in all earnestness in 2008. By then it was too late to do much about it( power stations are not built overnight) and constant power interruptions cost the economy billions of rands.
I don’ t remember a single government official taking responsibility for the state’ s failure to plan adequately for sufficient electricity generation. On the contrary, the situation was obfuscated with much political spin and rhetoric about the legacy of apartheid, and so the onus fell on citizens to save electricity and reduce‘ unnecessary’ usage, or face penalties in the form of power interruptions.
Perhaps this is sounding familiar too. And again, it should, because the onus to stave off the water crisis has largely been placed on the country’ s citizens, who have to adhere to water restrictions, or face fines and even criminal charges.
Incredibly, those at the wheel are still fast asleep and the reality of water shedding seems to be doing little to rouse our political leadership. Unfortunately, the consequences of water shedding will be far more devastating than those of load-shedding.
A recent investigative report into the water crisis by one of the country’ s daily newspapers highlights government’ s failures quite succinctly:
• South Africa’ s dam building programme is a decade behind schedule;
• Faulty pumps result in the loss of great amounts of water;
• Leaks and poor water infrastructure lead to a tremendous loss of water each year; and
• Poor or dysfunctional sewage plants result in large amounts of sewage flowing into rivers and dams. We cannot afford for the situation to get any worse, so it is high time for those in power to wake up and smell something rancid. Sadly, though, I cannot see this happening. I suspect we will be left with little more than a sense of déjà vu. u
Martin
Martin Czernowalow | Editor
Water Sewage & Effluent January / February 2017 1