12 November 2024

Honourable Speaker

Honourable Members of the National Assembly

Fellow South Africans

Right to water

Section 27 of the Constitution guarantees the right to water and calls for government to take reasonable legislative and other measures within its available resources to achieve the progressive realization of the right to water.

Constitutional responsibilities for water

The national government is responsible for water resource management. It also develops national water resource infrastructure.

Water supply and sanitation services are a function over which municipalities have executive authority in terms of section 156 of the Constitution read together with Schedule 4 Part B and the relevant provisions of the Municipal Structures Act.

Raw water security

Raw (untreated) water supply is currently approximately in balance with existing demand on a national scale, but there are localized deficits in the supply of water, such as in Gauteng and parts of KZN.

However, water availability in South Africa could deteriorate rapidly as supply contracts and demand escalates due to economic growth, population growth, urbanization, inefficient use (including increasing physical losses in municipal distribution systems), degradation of wetlands, and the impacts of climate change.

Delays in the implementation of surface water resource development projects in the past have now been addressed and all the planned projects have been accelerated. For example, all the major contracts for Phase 2 of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project were awarded in 2023 and construction is under way. The affordability problem which had resulted in delays in the Umkhomazi Water Project was resolved and eThekwini and surrounding municipalities finally signed long-term off-take agreements for the project in January 2024. Similarly the funding issue which had delayed the construction of the Ntabelanga Dam on the Umzimvubu River has been resolved and construction of the dam will start shortly.

DWS and the TCTA are currently implementing 14 major national water resource infrastructure projects around the country, to a value of more than R100 billion, including Phase 2 of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. These projects include the raising of the walls of the Hazelmere, Clanwilliam, Tzaneen and Klipfontein Dams. The projects will address future raw water needs for industry, agriculture and domestic use.

However, there are limits to which South Africa can keep building dams to address its water security needs. We are already harnessing approximately 75% of our utilizable surface water resources, and the remaining opportunities for capturing surface water in large dams are expensive.

Broadening of South Africa’s water resource mix is therefore critical for water security. We need to diversify the water resource mix by increasing the sustainable use of groundwater; making more use of desalination of sea water in our coastal towns and cities; and by re-using water from the waste-water treatment systems in our towns and cities.

In addition to these measures to increase the supply of raw water, we also need to implement measures to reduce the demand for water.

If we are to avoid water shortages in future, South Africans need to change their behaviour and treat water like the scarce resource that it is. This means that municipalities must fix the leaks in their water distribution systems. We cannot afford to be throwing away almost half of the water that is supplied to municipalities through leaks.

The average per capita water consumption of water in South Africa is 218 litres per capita  per day, compared to the international average of 173 litres per capita  per day. This is not sustainable.

South Africa is one of the thirty most water scarce country, and our average consumption of water should therefore be far below the international average, not far above it.

Water supply disruptions in Gauteng and parts of KZN

The water supply disruptions currently being experienced in Gauteng and eThekwini and surrounding municipalities are not caused drought.

They are caused by rapid growth in the demand for water in these cities, caused partly by population growth and partly by increasing leaks in municipal water distribution systems. The leaks are in turn the result of under-budgeting for infrastructure maintenance by municipalities, which is partly caused by weak municipal billing and revenue collection for water services.

The planners in DWS anticipated this growth in demand and put in place plans to address it in the 1980’s, through the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) and the uMkhomazi Water Project. These projects were delayed but are now in implementation.

It will only be possible for Rand Water and the Umgeni uThukela Water Boards to abstract more water from the Vaal and Umgeni water systems once these major new dam projects are complete.

At present, the peak demand for water in Gauteng and eThekwini is occasionally exceeding the supply available from Water Boards. This means that we need to reduce the demand for water.

One of the key ways to reduce demand is for municipalities to fix the leaks in their water distribution systems. These losses are 33% on average across Gauteng municipalities, and approximately 45% in eThekwini. This compares to the international norm of 15%.

In addition, the awareness of residents and businesses in Gauteng and KZN regarding the need to use water sparingly must be raised. To that end, DWS, the two Water Boards, and the municipalities in Gauteng and KZN are partnering with the World Bank 2020 Water Resources Group to implement a mass awareness and communications campaign, in partnership with business and civil society leaders in the province.

Coupled with the awareness campaign, the municipalities must put in place stricter water-use restrictions and enforce them.

The current closure of the transfer and delivery tunnels of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project is not the cause of water supply disruptions in Gauteng. The tunnel closure is not affecting the amount of water that Rand Water can abstract from the Integrated Vaal River System. This is because the System consists of fourteen interconnected dams, some of which are full, and  water will be transferred from one part of the system to another, if and when required.

For the same reason, the fact that the level of water in the Vaal Dam has fallen to approximately 33% is not the cause of water supply disruptions in Gauteng. If and when the level of water in the Vaal Dam reaches 18%, DWS will release water from the Sterkfontein Dam which is also part of the Integrated Vaal River System. This water will flow into the Vaal Dam, enabling Rand Water to continue to abstract water at its current rate of abstraction.

Municipal water services

The Blue, Green and no Drop reports that DWS issued in December last year indicated that municipal water and waste water services have generally declined sharply over the last ten years, in terms of indicators such as the quality of water provided, the quality of effluent from waste water treatment works, and the levels of physical water losses and non-revenue water. The reports also identified the key causes of this decline, including weak billing and revenue collection, insufficient prioritization of budgets for maintenance by municipal councils, and insufficient employment of staff with the required qualifications.

This decline in the delivery of municipal water services has taken place despite high levels of support from the national government to municipalities, including more than R60 billion per annum in grants for water and sanitation infrastructure and for free basic water for the indigent, as well as substantial technical, financial and other capacity building support. This indicates that support is necessary but not sufficient to turn around the decline, and structural reform of the municipal water services function is also required.

The solution is not for national government to take over municipal water functions. Municipalities must be made to work better.

Reforms are required to ensure that municipal water services become professionally run and financially sustainable. This requires strengthened legislative and regulatory measures, such as those that DWS has proposed in the draft Water Services Amendment Bill, which introduces a requirement for municipal Water Services Providers to have an operating license, with the aim of ensuring minimum levels of capability.

Further reforms are also required, including measures by National Treasury to require the ring-fencing of revenues from the sale of water services for water services, and changes to grant conditions to strongly incentivize better management and financial sustainability.

Increasing access to water services

Finally, there are still areas of the country where there are communities which have never had access to water services. While access to a basic level of water services has improved from approximately 55% in 1994 to approximately 90% today, addressing the remaining 10% remains a priority, along with addressing the decline in the reliability of supply to those who do have access. DWS is prioritizing projects which address the remaining access backlogs for funding from its Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant and Water Service Infrastructure Grant.