ANC fails to appreciate value of water: DA

Democratic Alliance shadow minister of water and sanitation‚ Nosimo Balindlela‚ told Parliament that the African National Congress (ANC) government “does not understand” the seriousness of the current drought gripping the country as “they do not appreciate the value of water”.

Speaking during Parliament’s drought and water crisis debate on Tuesday‚ she said the ANC “does not understand that water means health‚ it means progress‚ it means dignity‚ it means life and unfortunately‚ for so many communities‚ lack of clean water means illness and death”.

“I recall the eleven babies who died last year in Bloemhof in the North West from diarrhoea after drinking contaminated water. In the Mothotlung Township‚ also in the North West‚ four people died in violent protest over lack of water. And most recently an 8-year-old boy drowned on the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal while collecting water from the uMvoti River.”

Balindlela said these deaths were tragic and should serve as “warning about what could come if we don’t treat water as the precious resource that it is”.

“No more obvious is this government’s disregard for the value of water‚ than in the millions of litres of potable water that is wasted through leaking pipes in the ANC-run metros.

“In 2010 President (jacob) Zuma stated in his State of the Nation Address that his government would put measures in place to reduce the country’s water loss by half by 2014.

“It is now 2015 and the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro Municipality is losing 42.3% of its water‚ while just last night (Monday) ‘water-shedding’ was announced in Johannesburg‚ no doubt contributed to by the 40.9% leakage in water attributed to by crumbling and porous infrastructure.

“All the while (water affairs and sanitation) minister (Nomvula) Mokonyane sent a whopping R2-billion back to Treasury when this money could’ve been used for fixing water infrastructure that has dilapidated over the years.

“At the end of July this year‚ the City of Cape Town indicated that its water losses stood at 16.4%‚ the lowest in the country.”

She said that perhaps even more alarming is the rate at which the ANC government was allowing untreated sewage to spill into our water resources.

“Last week minister Mokonyane stood in this House bragging about Gauteng’s clean water during her tenure as premier in that province. However‚ we all know that Gauteng’s drinking water is supplied by Rand Water‚ an entity not under the management of the ANC. Thank goodness for that!

“Under the minister’s watch‚ as premier and as national minister‚ waste water treatment plants like Rooiwal in Tshwane have become a danger to the community. Boreholes around Rooiwal are filled with E.coli and toxic waste is pumped out onto municipal grounds.

“It is shocking that no one is being held accountable.

“The National Water Act makes it an offence for anyone to intentionally or negligently commit any act or omission which pollutes or is likely to pollute a water resource. This includes municipal managers.

“But Speaker‚ for the ANC there is something far worse than contaminated water and that is seeing a guilty cadre in the dock. As we heard from president Zuma over the weekend‚ the ANC comes first‚ then the interests of the country‚” said Balindlela.

RDM News Wire.