Under the ANC, planning dried up

Diminutive stature and a penchant for water tanks earned Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero a nickname, Jojo The Clown. However, Johannesburg’s water crisis is no joke.

BusinessInsider calculated it would cost R3.36 billion to have a tank in each of Joburg’s approximately 1.68 million households.

“That’s a conservative estimate for the JoJo tanks themselves and doesn’t account for delivery or set-up.”

Such numbers attract inflated tenders and minimal delivery. Joburg can’t afford a socialist fantasy of JoJos for all. Water problems are not new. South Africa is a semi-arid country in need of long-term water plans. Under the ANC, planning dried up.

As one wag tweeted, “Rand Water was established in 1903 … It survived challenges for more than a century but, like everything else, it couldn’t survive the ANC.”

ALSO READ: Rand Water blames municipalities for water crisis in Gauteng

Nomvula Mokonyane, infamous for saying, “Let the rand fall, we will pick it up”, was ANC minister of water and sanitation from 2014- 2018. In 2018, the auditor-general found more than R6.4 billion in irregular expenditure in her department. Her shadow looms.

The September meeting of parliament’s water and sanitation committee discussed “challenges facing the department in several areas, including its financial performance and position, service delivery, the clearing of legacy cases involving unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, the existence of fraud and corruption …”

Rand Water is wrong to blame consumers. As Free State University’s Professor Anthony Turton told the Sunday Times on 16 October, we suffer because of government departments’ incompetence and failures.

“We have between 40% and 60% of the water going into a system lost in pipes before it gets to the end user. Why have they allowed their system to deteriorate so badly? For every 100l of water that Rand Water puts in on their side, only 50l comes out. The other 40l to 50l is lost on its way there.

“Blaming consumer behaviour is a complete red herring. They are saying we are using water negligently but they are including the 48% lost in the system. They are shifting the loss to the consumer.”

Figures vary but the pattern is clear. Joburg’s water losses of 43% are made up of “technical” losses from leaks and burst pipes (18%), while “nontechnical losses”, including unmetered supply and bypassed meters account for 25%. Thousands of users don’t pay for water.

ALSO READ: Water crisis: Increased usage due to heatwave and vandalised infrastructure

Increased Eskom blackouts play havoc with water supply at reservoirs and towers. The city has not installed sufficient power, independent of Eskom, to keep pumps going during blackouts.

Bringing some relief, Minister Senzo Mchunu has allowed more water to be made available to Rand Water for nine months. However, Rand Water will not be able to draw this higher amount indefinitely. Gauteng is simply too dry for that. If water supply collapses, the sewerage system will be imperilled. Then we’ll be in the poo.

So, Joburg must cut water losses. Urgently. Instead of threatening paying customers with regulations which are not policed:

• Speed up replacement of old pipes;
• Enforce better quality work from contractors;
• Cut times allowed for fixing leaks, 48 hours for a burst is unacceptable;
• Trace and eliminate all meter bypasses; and
• Do away with unmetered supply.

This is no time for clowning.