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The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) has expressed concern over the maladministration by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS). OUTA requested information on the country’s drinking water and wastewater quality as well as the state of water leakage within the municipalities of South Africa.

“It is clear the DWS is clueless as to the state of water affairs at a municipal level. This is unacceptable, reckless and negligent by the custodian and regulator for the country's water as they are obliged to monitor the water management performance within local government and enforce compliance,” said Julius Kleynhans, OUTA’s Portfolio Director for Water and Environment.

The DWS could not supply the reports requested by OUTA, citing a lack of human and financial resources. However, the Auditor-General’s Annual Report for the period of 2015/16 reveals the DWS underspent approximately R189 million of its annual budget and R2 billion the previous year.

“It is appalling that the public’s most basic human rights, as enshrined in our Constitution, are reduced to mere statistical conversations due to prevailing indifference within the DWS. OUTA is poised to change this and elevate the public’s constitutional rights to the level rightfully deserved.”, said Brendan Slade, OUTA’s Legal Advisor for Water and Environment.

“DWS is holding law abiding citizens to account by increasing water tariffs and issuing fines, whilst the suppliers of water are the main perpetrators. A question should be asked as to whether a water crisis could have been avoided in recent drought periods. Should the regulator fail to perform its duties, we will once again suffer a water crisis – which will be directly attributed to the Government’s inefficiency,” Kleynhans said.

The state of water management monitoring seems dire, as the most recent data from the DWS reveals 76% of municipal drinking water systems failed to comply with drinking water quality in 2014; 93% of our wastewater treatment systems did not comply to discharge standards in 2013 and 37% of treated drinking water is lost due to leakage within urban infrastructure.

OUTA has lodged a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) during National Water Week, calling for an investigation into maladministration within the DWS.

“The SAHRC has acknowledged our complaint. We are currently discussing the prospects of interim relief against the DWS with our legal team, as we believe that the true state of water affairs and its risk to the public is far worse than initially anticipated,” Kleynhans said.

Issued by OUTA