Parliamentary Portfolio
submission:
TOWARDS A PLAN TO IMPROVE
WATER QUALITY AND WATER
SECURITY IN SOUTH AFRICA
SOME POINTS FROM WESSA:WC
Patrick Dowling
Wildlife and Environment
Society of South Africa:Western Cape
21 June 2006
Approach to submission:
There was a call for inputs which highlighted points of concern for the
portfolio committee. Below these are quoted or summarised in italics.
Based on our experiences and organizational position statements I have
included a Wessa comment on each quote.
This is followed by some recommendations for practical action.
“The Minister of Water
Affairs and Forestry is the custodian of
South Africa's water
resources in South Africa. Is thus responsible also
of ensuring that our
water is safe for drinking, for recreation and a
range of diverse life and
sustainable economic activities.”
Comment – While legally this
is the case and there are DWAF officials who try, the overall water picture in
South Africa is gloomy because:
Recommendation: In order to
fulfil its mandate as described DWAF needs to ensure cross sectoral and inter
departmental compliance with the range of national and international
legislation at its disposal and publicly promote the principle that without water
sustainability there can be no sustainable development.
The National Water Act
requires the Minister to establish
national monitoring
systems for water resources to collect appropriate
data and information that
is necessary to assess:
Comment: Nationally, provincially and locally there
is a huge amount of data available already. Climate change is possibly one area
needing more formal research.
Recommendations:
Comment: This is a serious
challenge for an arid, sometimes water stressed country.
Recommendations:
·
Proper ecological
functioning of aquatic ecosystems should be made the primary concern.
·
Socio-economic
development drivers, having taken this sine qua non on board should
incorporate its principles into the “business plan” so that conservation, water
demand management, rehabiltation and good husbandry can be creatively
integrated into socio-economic development.
On a daily basis across
the country, organizations and individuals impact on the water quality in our
rivers, streams,groundwater and our wetlands. The consumption of untreated
water is one of the main sources of disease in South Africa.
Comment: This
acknowledgement is heartening. The consumption of water from a pristine source
is unlikely to have major health consequences. However in some instances water
is being contaminated before it gets into storage dams and then poses a risk.
(E.g. Tulbagh and Voelvlei dam)
Recommendations:
Water is a source of life
but can also be a source of illness,
and even result in death.
Safe drinking water is one on mankind's most
important basic needs,
and essential to good health. Our Constitution, the
foundation of all the
laws in our country, says that everyone has a right
to have access to water -
enough water to live. Our democratic government,
which is in charge of our
country's water, must ensure that there is clean
water for all of us now
and for future generations. Hazardous waste sites
threaten water quality
both in urban and rural lands. Pesticides and
fertilizers levels in our
surface water and groundwater require ongoing
monitoring.
Comment: Again this
acknowledgement is welcome. While the issue of free basic water supply
continues to be debated more important to note is the huge and unjustifiable
gap between high end and low end users even in the same sector. There are for
example domestic units using more than 500 Kl per month and others using less
than six Kl. Groundwater abstraction at various geological levels is
increasingly being looked at as a quick solution to supply-side demand, this
often with negative or unpredictable consequences.
Recommendations:
·
All municipal domestic,
hazardous waste and land-fill sites should reach compliance with national
standards by a specific date to be set by DWAF.
Furthermore, the National
Water Act (Act No. 36 of 1998) provides a framework to protect water resources
against over exploitation and also ensure that there is water for social and
economic development. The Act also recognises that water belongs to the whole
nation for the benefit of all people.
Comment: It should be
acknowledged that the voice for social and economic development will be the
loudest and will tend to drown out the noble sentiment of protecting water
resources. Despite the governments ambitious and purposeful roll-out of
services there are still many South Africans with very limited access to good
quality water and often the poorest are paying the most per kilolitre in
physical effort if not in cash to ensure supply. The project to help resource
poor farmers is administratively difficult to access.
Recommendations: