Water, Sewage & Effluent March April 2019 | Page 4

Water Services Act, the DWS should be allowed to work with municipalities, adding that regional bulk infrastructure grants from Treasury went straight to municipalities and the department did not even have the authority to make them account for the money. The minister said that this was a big challenge in terms of the model of water services delivery. A week later, the DWS again appeared before the committee. The aim of this meeting was to be kept abreast by the department about specific water projects across the country, in particular where there have been delays. The committee was dissatisfied with some of the reasons provided for delays, saying, “At the heart of your problem is poor planning; if you fail to plan you are planning to fail. You don’t have planners — that’s the crux of what we are dealing with here.” In response, a spokesperson for the department said that Deputy Minister Pamela Tshwete had highlighted the challenges of service delivery while manoeuvring the legislative space that separates roles and responsibilities. “The DWS is required to provide bulk services, and the reticulation from such bulk services lies in the hands of local government. It is therefore imperative that as we continue to develop such bulk, we engage local government to ensure the necessary provision of requisite reticulation,” said Tshwete. While Parliament and the department volley with the question of who, exactly, is ultimately accountable, communities are left to suffer. Residential areas and the peri-urban space are directly affected by raw sewage and waterborne diseases, with the limited water resource threatened daily with pollutants and contamination. In their article, “Wastewater solutions go to waste!” on page 14, Professor Keith Cowan and Richard K Laubscher tackle the challenges to implementing a sewage treatment demonstrator technology in South Africa. The authors bring us a hard-hitting look at how, at municipal level, the dire state of sanitation infrastructure, or lack thereof, is clearly evident — as is its impact. Another major topic addressed in this issue is groundwater. On page 28, Helgard Muller looks at “Groundwater — invisible component of the hydrological cycle”, where he comments on how the development of groundwater resources will be crucial for sustaining water security in the wake of South Africa’s increasing water scarcity. He explains how groundwater’s role in South Africa has already undergone a major change — previously an undervalued resource and merely seen as ‘private boreholes’, groundwater is now a source of domestic water for more than 60% of communities in thousands of villages and small towns countrywide. Read Mike Muller’s “Groundwater: source, store, and secret wastewater treatment works” on page 24, where he reports on how experts from water-short regions from around the world share their experiences and possible solutions. He discusses the importance of (and limits to) obvious measures like promoting water conservation, reducing system losses, and technical innovations like low- flush — or even no-flush — toilets. I hope you find this issue insightful, and if you have any comments, views, or news relating to the water space that you’d like to share, please email me at [email protected]. Until the next issue, happy wading.  2 Water Sewage & Effluent March/April 2019 2 Water Sewage & Effluent March/April www.waterafrica.co.za 2019