The issue of water provision could soon be an electoral issue comparable to load-shedding. This could not come at a worse time for the governing ANC as it seeks to recover from successive electoral losses in the upcoming polls.
The water crisis in the metros of Johannesburg and eThekwini in recent weeks has deepened, with metro officials in the respective cities scrambling for a solutions. These two metros are situated in provinces where the ANC is facing its toughest electoral challenges, with various polls suggesting it will lose KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng to the opposition.
In the case of Johannesburg, more water outages could be expected as trends showed outages had increased in both number and frequency, water management expert, Anja du Plessis said.
“The number of water outages in Johannesburg has escalated exponentially from 2021 to now. This is due to unmaintained dilapidated water infrastructure. Burst pipes and leaks are left for days before being fixed and in some instances, some replacements made are not of suitable quality, causing the “fixed” pipe to either leak or burst again, Du Plessis said.
“We therefore need actual accountability, transparency and the appointment of qualified staff to address this issue before dry taps — as various parts of Johannesburg have experienced for 10 days or longer — become the norm,” she said.
Opposition parties, the DA, EFF and the IFP have taken note of the water crisis with each of them including the adequate provision of water on their election manifestos.
The DA has promised to end “water shedding” by involving private companies in water infrastructure projects, while the EFF says it will employ 250 software developers, 125 of will be women, to provide AI-driven solutions to water management and water scarcity by 2025. The IFP says it will remove water tankers which have been placed in areas that are experiencing water outages, by 2030.
“The past two decades have shown little political will to try to address issues. This is partly why we are sitting in the mess we are now, Du Plessis said.
“The government needs to appoint qualified independent individuals within the Water Tribunal, conduct independent audits of wastewater treatment works, drinking water treatment facilities. Additionally, local municipalities need to obtain an independent and realistic view of the current state of facilities as well as capacity and skill constraints,” she said.
Countrywide, the issue of water provision is also likely to persist due to defective infrastructure, inadequate chemical purification of the water, a lack of monitoring and lack of operating and chemistry knowledge and skills. According to the department of water & sanitation’s (DWS) blue drop report released in 2023 the government requires a minimum of R1,5bn to resolve the challenges.
But water scientist Anthony Turnton estimated that R1-trillion was required to resolve the countrywide water issues and the amount estimated in the department's report would only cover the water challenges faced in Johannesburg.
“Our water systems are designed to have a 98% assurance of supply level. That translates to two disruptions in 100 years. We now have near continuous disruption of various sorts. The fact that 46% of all water plant now provides water that is unsafe for use merely supports my statement that the system has failed. It is not going to fail. It has already failed,” Turnton said.
Finding the funds to resolve the water issues in a fiscally constrained environment is a challenge for water & sanitation minister, Senzo Mchunu who intervened in eThekwini and promised residents that their water woes would resolved by the end of April.
The ANC in Johannesburg has shifted the blame to Rand Water and the collapse of the entity’s infrastructure for the water crisis in the city.
“The ANC further calls on the City of Johannesburg to work with all stakeholders to ensure that the water challenges are resolved timeously and that a long-term infrastructure improvement plan is put in place, and subsequently implemented,” it said in a statement.
In eThekwini, there is no end in sight of the water crisis in the city with the municipality placing water tankers in the worst affected areas and prioritising schools and hospitals.
Meanwhile, the political wrangling over the issue continues with the ANC in Durban blaming the uMkhonto weSizwe party, backed by former president Jacob Zuma, for the mayhem.
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