Experts applaud Public Protector’s call to address Hammanskraal water crisis

Public Protector (PP) Kholeka Gcaleka’s report, giving multiple local government agencies 60 days to come up with a plan to fix the almost two decades-long saga of foul water being supplied in Hammanskraal, has been widely welcomed.

Gcaleka’s report found “residents of Hammanskraal are not receiving clean water suitable for human consumption due to a partially functional and/or dysfunctional state and condition of the Rooiwal wastewater treatment works”.

Hammanskraal water issues an ’emergency’

It demanded the matter be treated as an emergency, requiring the department of water and sanitation, elements of the City of Tshwane, National Treasury, the department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs and the department of human settlements to work together.

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“The lack of access to clean and potable water poses a danger to the lives of affected community members, constitutes a continuous gross inconvenience and improper prejudice to the residents of Hammanskraal,” she said.

Water specialist Prof Anthony Turton said the report was encouraging.

“This is the first mention I have ever seen of a root cause analysis and it is a credible report that also confirms exactly what I have been saying for decades – that a water treatment plant for potable water was never designed to create potable water from sewage-contaminated feedstock.

“What is said in this specific case is applicable across the entire country,” he said.

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“This dilutes the impact and credibility of the report. We know the credibility of the PP was seriously damaged by the previous incumbent, so just get on with the job of restoring trust without telling everyone you are cleaning up your act: be like Nike and ‘just do it’.

“The public will learn how to trust when credible reports start to emerge from the PP.”

Looting spree

Turton said billions of rands had been thrown at solutions to problems that had never been diagnosed.

“For example, the deployment of the SANDF (SA National Defence Force) to fix the sewage failure at Emfuleni was part of a R3 billion effort that had no root cause analysis to guide it.

“Cadres profit massively from inappropriate solutions being applied to misdiagnosed problems. The PP’s report might be the starting point for the correction of this looting spree,” he said.

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Water expert and associate professor at the University of South Africa Anja du Plessis said the report had verified what experts had been saying for two decades.

“The overall lack of appropriate planning and interventions, as well as continued mismanagement, unaccountability, apathy, and neglect has led to institutional failure on a local level, in this case Hammanskraal,” she said.

“The responsible local municipality has failed to fulfil its overall mandate: the access and provision of water of a suitable quality to its consumers,” she said.

Suitable solutions

Du Plessis said this was not an isolated case and added there were multiple examples of this across the country.

“There are suitable solutions and interventions available to address the various already existing and developing water crises.

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“However, it requires actual planning and action, instead of the continued blame game, leaving numerous communities with either unreliable, or no suitable drinking water supply,” she said.

Du Plessis said South Africa’s freshwater realities needed to be acknowledged.

“Current water crises such as cholera within Hammanskraal, the continued sewage crisis in the eThekwini municipality and continued water shortages in the City of Joburg, to mention but a few, need to be acknowledged and prioritised to try and solve the country’s known freshwater realities, which will remain bleak if actual actions are not taken,” she said.

Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink said the remedial actions ordered by the PP accorded with what the city had already undertaken in partnership with the department of water and sanitation.

“That partnership agreement is being monitored by the mayoral committee and a full report in compliance with the PP remedial actions will be tabled at the municipal council before the end of this month,” he confirmed.

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Brink said the city had allocated R450 million towards upgrading the Rooiwal wastewater treatment works over the next three years.

– marizkac@citizen.co.za