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Pollution battle 'in stages'
15/05/2007 18:17 - (SA)
Cape Town - The government will not crack down legally on municipalities that fail to prevent water pollution if the local authority lacks capacity, said Water Affairs Minister Lindiwe Hendricks on Tuesday.
"Our attitude is: How can you police people when you, yourself, know they actually have no capacity to comply," she told a media briefing at parliament on Tuesday.
She was responding to a question about how her department planned to tackle municipalities which, in some areas, were the "biggest" polluters.
High E-coli bacteria counts - an indication of faecal contamination - are being recorded in rivers and ground water sources in many parts of South Africa.
The problem is associated with untreated sewage.
Lindiwe said the approach her department had adopted was to support municipalities "until they can stand on their own two feet".
It was in the "transition stage" of transferring water supply and treatment schemes, as well as staff, to municipalities.
'Strong letters'
Hendricks said: "So we are not going hard on municipalities and taking them to court because of pollution; we are trying to work with them to make sure their systems work."
She said many municipal water treatment works were "old schemes that are not coping with the number of people that have come to stay in an area".
Much of their infrastructure was old, and had not been refurbished.
"So our approach is that in order for us to police successfully, we must make sure that the municipality puts into place mechanisms to deal with this, after which we can police."
However, she was "beginning now to write strong letters to municipalities" in those areas where untreated sewerage was contaminating the local water supply.
"I think this is where one must start before you come with a hard-hitting measure. We will resort to legal action when we think it makes sense," said Hendricks.
- SAPA
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