Date: 15/04/2010
Source: Democratic Alliance
Title: DA: Lovemore: Speech by DA Member of Parliament on Water and Environmental Affairs budget vote, National Assembly

Chairperson, Honourable Minister, Deputy Minister and Members

The Minister is expected to release the long overdue Green Drop report on the state of wastewater treatment in South Africa on Monday next week.

South Africa has 852 municipal wastewater treatment plants. More than R3.5 billion is spent annually on the operation of these works. Despite this, the Green Drop report notes that "the municipal waste water services business is generally considered to be far from acceptable".

Only 53 % of our wastewater works were actually assessed. 47 % were NOT assessed for the following reasons :
• Municipalities not adhering to the call to be assessed, or
• Municipal officials not sufficiently confident in their levels of competence to be subjected to assessments, or
• Municipalities not managing waste water services according to expected requirements and therefore not in possession of management information required for Green Drop assessments.

These are not reasons for not assessing. These are reasons for a score of ZERO and for URGENT intervention.

So - while the Minister will be announcing shortly that 32, or 7.4 %, of works actually achieved Green Drop status, she should be announcing that only 3.8 % of works comply fully with requirements.

The Minister will also be announcing that 45 % of the works assessed scored better than 50 %. In fact, however, 76 % of the works scored less than 50 %, and 47 % of the works, in effect, scored zero.

.....

In 2008/09, chairperson, the Department compiled reports on the state of works in each province, providing the base information for the Green Drop report.

Limpopo provides a disturbing reflection of the situation throughout the country, with the very obvious exception of the Western Cape. I visited Limpopo last week, Minister, and saw and heard first hand of the problems - of raw sewage entering the rivers of the Kruger National Park from leaking infrastructure in Phalaborwa, of 60 % of raw sewage flow in Louis Trichardt simply being diverted into a river because the plant in question cannot cope with the load.

Minister, 40 of the works assessed by your department in Limpopo, or 65%, are considered "high risk". 22 works scored at the lowest possible "acceptable" level.

14 of the 62 works have no licence to operate. In 43 cases, the existence of a licence could not be determined. Thus, 91 % of the works are operating outside of the law and outside of any formal control.

Only 1 of the works in Limpopo has complied with standards for discharge of final effluent into rivers.

Not one of the works has the required number of qualified staff employed.

.....

The Green Drop report considers 160 works countrywide as "high risk". The 403 works not assessed for highly spurious reasons should equally be considered high risk, giving a total of 563 or 66 % "high risk" operations.

Minister, your department has, as an objective, reducing "pollution in water resources throughout South Africa by ensuring that ALL ...wastewater treatment plants comply with effluent standards...by March 2011. Your optimism must now be matched by ACTION.
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The 2005 State of the Environment report states "...There should be sufficient water of suitable quality to meet South Africa's expectations...for the near future. This is provided the resources are carefully managed."

Careful management, however, is by no means the order of the day. According to a reply to a 2009 DA question, 68 municipalities or water service authorities, or 40 % of water authorities had no water service development plans in place. Only the Western Cape complied with the legal requirement to conduct an annual audit on water services.

Alarm bells are ringing.

Regrettably, the competence to respond to these alarm bells simply does not exist.

The Green Drop report notes, as one of the reasons for poor performance: "Skills shortages existed at all levels from managerial to junior operational".

Minister, at a conference recently held in Port Elizabeth,entitled "Water Sector Capacity and Skills Development", one of your officials presented a study performed in 1998 - 12 years ago - which found there to be a lack of competence in the water sector. A skills task team was established in 2008 - 10 years later. To date, in the words of the conference presenter, "nothing has happened". This skills task team forms part of the Water Sector Leadership Group, which was formed in 1998, and which you, as Minister, head.

Your department's 2004 National Water Resource Strategy states "It is imperative to ensure that sufficient capacity is created in the water sector ...The Department is playing a prominent role in this initiative. The strategy has the objective of ensuring that... all role players in the South African water sector...will have ensured that the necessary capacity exists in all relevant institutions..."

Contrast this, Minister, with your response to a 2009 DA question on the shortage of engineers in the water sector. You replied:

"My Department has no information for the Water Sector, however, for my Department, the table below indicates the extent of shortage within."

Civil Engineers Mechanical Engineers
95 posts filled
210 posts vacant 11 posts filled
16 posts vacant

In February 2010 we asked whether your department determines the skills and capacity requirements in the water sector. The answer was a simple NO.
Minister, you head the Water Sector Leadership Group. You have a skills task team in place. However, where is the evidence of any forward momentum being generated by your department ?

Your department's strategic plan identifies, as an output, "Conduct skills gap analysis for the water sector". A report is to be produced by the end of 2011. You will then begin to implement interventions.

The first of such promises was made in 1998. Your department has let South Africa down, and seriously so.

Minister, ground and surface water quality is deteriorating fast. People have died after drinking polluted water. Animals in the Kruger National Park and ecosystems across the country are under threat. Tourism is compromised by the eutrophication of rivers and dams, as is evident in Hartebeespoort. Water treatment costs are escalating due to poor raw water quality. Farmers are unable to irrigate with polluted river water. The availability of water to sustain economic development and human and environmental health is diminishing. Opportunities are being seriously undermined.

You have advertised for nominations to serve on your Advisory Council. Only people with the finest skills, people who are truly fit for purpose, should serve on this committee. Your internal advisors are letting you down.

Do better Minister. Most importantly, give South Africa the vital, critical and URGENT leadership required to address the current shocking level of mismanagement of our water resources and the development and retention of the skills we so desperately need.