Reticulation and poor infrastructure behind country's inadequate water supply, Mashatile says

While South Africa is a water-scarce country, reticulation and poor infrastructure are the main causes of inadequate water supply in some parts of the country.

Deputy President Paul Mashatile told parliament on Thursday that many of South Africa’s dams had water, but reticulation was the problem.

Leaks were another problem due to lack of infrastructure maintenance as some municipalities plead poverty.

Mashatile said the national government was intervening through the water task team he leads and that he, along with water and sanitation minister Pemmy Majodina, have been “harassing” finance minister Enoch Godongwana to allocate more resources towards fighting water problems.

“[We have been] saying we need resources to assist municipalities to sort out the problem of water because some of the municipalities do not have a good tax base.

“You can scream at them and say ‘fix the pipes and maintain infrastructure’, they will say, ‘well, we don’t have the money.’”

Mashatile said Godongwana was “very positive” about their request and promised to look at the matter.

Mashatile said the so-called water mafia thrived when there were these challenges because water shortages presented an opportunity for them to bring their trucks and sell water to residents.

In some provinces, the water tankers sabotaged infrastructure.

“I came across this problem with the president in the North West. They told us these people interfere with infrastructure so that they can come and sell water.

“So, as we fix this problem [and] we have sound infrastructure, invest properly, the mafias will not have an opportunity to survive,” he said.

Mashatile said they have established that water infrastructure in many parts of the country is “very old” and needs to be upgraded.

Mashatile said working with Majodina and the minister of co-operative governance and traditional affairs Velenkosini Hlabisa, they were looking at the issues of non-payment, where municipalities did not pay water authorities and ratepayers and businesses did not pay municipalities.

“We need to enforce the culture of payment so that the municipalities are able to pay the water authorities so that we don’t even think about rationing or cutting water supply.”

Government will plead with municipalities to spare institutions such as schools and hospitals when it comes to cutting supply.

With regards to the water shortages in Gauteng, Mashatile said Majodina convened urgent meetings with that province’s provincial government, and critical measures were being implemented to ensure the province does not reach a crisis stage where there won't be adequate water supply.

He said the water task team was monitoring the implementation of measures recommended by Rand Water to avert water depletion.

The reasons for the water supply disruptions in Gauteng have been identified as the high levels of leaks in municipal water distribution systems and high average consumption by residents.

To address these challenges, the department of water and sanitation, Rand Water and the Gauteng metropolitan municipalities have set up a technical team to monitor water storage and municipal consumption.

Mashatile said the department of water and sanitation is also engaging with the municipalities to encourage them to address the leaks in their distribution systems and illegal connections.