THE ANC has set its sights on tackling the country’s water crisis although Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina recently warned that it will require at least R1 trillion to fix.
Majodina revealed in October last year that the estimated required cost of fixing the current backlog in the provision of water and sanitation in rural, urban, and peri-urban areas is R89.9 billion per annum over the next 10 years.
”These are projections for capital requirements to address the water infrastructure backlogs over the next 10 years which include refurbishment and renewal of ageing infrastructure; upgrades to serve increases in service levels and sustain effective service delivery; as well as new infrastructure for growing human settlements and new economic nodes,” Majodina explained.
She added that her department has in the past five financial years spent approximately R53.8bn - R45.1bn in conditional grants to water services authorities and R8.7bn to its entities for water services infrastructure development.
According to the minister, the total amount that has been unspent by her department over the past five financial years is R5.1bn, all of which is related to conditional grants to water services authorities while no funds were unspent for entities.
Despite the challenges identified by Majodina, President Cyril Ramaphosa indicated that the ANC has decided to elevate water security as a priority task for 2025 in the governing party’s annual January 8 Statement marking the 113th anniversary of its formation in 1912.
”We are confident that drawing on the lessons learned from dealing successfully with the seemingly intractable challenge of load shedding, we will be able to deal with this crisis,” the president promised.
He called upon the government he heads to urgently implement measures such as water boards, immediately ensuring security of water supply and the upgrading aging municipal water infrastructure that contributes to significant water losses due to leaks by ring-fencing water revenue for critical maintenance.
Ramaphosa said there should be an implementation of a water and local financing framework that attracts private sector participation in the refurbishment of water infrastructure without relinquishing municipal ownership of water assets.
In addition, law enforcement agencies, working with municipalities, must tackle sabotage, theft, and corruption by water tanker mafia and to deal with illegal water connections.
The president also called for the acceleration of the programme to formalise informal settlements and ensure safe and legal access to water and electricity and the provision of free basic services to indigent persons.
Several parts of the country including the economic hub, Johannesburg, have experienced water shortages due to infrastructure challenges.
According to Majodina, her department plans to invest R37.6bn for maintenance and refurbishment of national water resources infrastructure assets.
However, she warned that since all maintenance and refurbishment are funded from revenue raised from water users, the outstanding debt owed to the department has risen to R2bn as of the end of March last year and debt has the consequence of significant delays in maintenance and refurbishment projects.