Department eyes water thieves

2008-05-23 13:34

Michael Hamlyn

Cape Town - Thieves who take water - especially from the Vaal River - should beware. The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry is taking action.

Talks are ongoing between the department and the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) to employ their "Green Scorpions" - the environmental inspectorate - to track down and prosecute those who abstract more water than they are licensed for, who build unauthorised dams, or who violate other licence conditions.

Water Affairs Minister Lindiwe Hendricks told members of parliament during Friday's debate on her budget that she was collaborating with the DEAT "to strengthen our legislation to ensure a more co-ordinated approach to enforcement in our efforts in fighting environmental and water crimes".

She also told a media briefing earlier that her department was in the meantime building up its own inspectorate to ensure illegal water users were dealt with.

She said that the amount of water stolen from the Vaal river area was the equivalent of that contained in the Mogale dam.

The minister also told MPs that although the quality of drinking water in the country was good in 94% of municipalities, there were worries about the last six percent. It was, she said, "of major concern and totally unacceptable", that these municipalities did not comply. She has given the mayors 30 days to respond to her and indicate measures they are putting in place to deal with the problem.

She also warned that the department was looking at the legislation and regulatory framework to identify the means of taking over water quality management from municipalities, either directly or through the local water boards.

A proudly South African innovation

Sizwe Mkhize, the deputy director general, policy and regulation, told the media briefing that the errant six percent had simply not reported their water monitoring results. It didn't necessarily suggest that the water in their areas was of poor quality.

The minister also described her visit to the Eastern Cape where children had been dying of diarrhoea. She said that at least part of the problem was to be laid at the door of the department of health, which had no adequate supplies of drugs, antibiotics or rehydration salts.

She said her department had now intervened on the ground, and the health department had found the supplies needed. But she said babies continue to die - "up to this day".

She said that people in the district were simply not trained in dealing with water purification. "They just threw in HTH without measurement," she said.

The minister reported at least one success of her department, which has developed, in partnership with the institute of municipal engineers an electronic water quality management system for drinking water.

"This is a proudly South African innovation," she said, "which has been internationally recognised and won an award from the International Water Association".

One area, however in which her department has failed to meet its target has been the bucket eradication system. The last bucket was supposed to have been eliminated by the end of 2007, but Hendricks told the house that 23 083 buckets are left in the Free State, the Eastern and Northern Cape provinces.

The problems, she said, have been in the topography - the rocks were too difficult to dig into, and blasting had been required.

- I-Net Bridge (News24)