702<\/a><\/strong>, Du Plessis said that the deplorable 64% access to usable water in the country is being negatively affected by infrastructure that is more than three decades old and failing.<\/p>\nShe said that old infrastructure that is not being maintained – similarly to how Eskom was managed – is leading to low water levels of water supply, as seen in Cape Town and Gqeberha.<\/p>\n
South Africa is a water-scarce country and having a working infrastructure ensures that the small amount of rain that does fall is preserved.<\/p>\n
On 3 August, the City of Cape Town’s Water and Sanitation directorate advised residents to be more cautious about their water usage as current rainfall is noticeably lower than the year before.<\/p>\n
This followed a warning by the Department of Water Sanitation of deteriorating water supplies in and around the Nelson Mandela Bay area, describing the situation as \u2018dire\u2019.<\/p>\n
Severe drought in the southern Nelson Mandela Bay municipality, which includes the coastal city of Gqeberha, has put reservoirs that supply a third of its 1.3 million people close to empty.<\/p>\n
Municipal oversight and skills shortage<\/strong><\/p>\nA recent study revealed that most municipalities do not have the skills and capacity to properly manage water infrastructure in the country, said Du Plessis.<\/p>\n
Currently, water management falls under the ambit of local municipalities, which are infamously known to mismanage water administration, she said.<\/p>\n
“The Department of Water and Sanitation has been struggling, and there have been various problems with water projects not completed. If we live in a perfect world, we should have a private agency that could audit our water resources so that we know what we’re sitting with and we can make informed decisions,” said Du Plessis.<\/p>\n
Despite there being many water projects to address the current water crisis in Gqeberha and the looming crisis country-wide, more action needs to be done by the government, she said.<\/p>\n
Du Plessis added that water administration and the sourcing of skills capable of dealing with the situation should fall under the mandate of the national government, not municipalities.<\/p>\n
Operation Vulindela<\/strong><\/p>\nFinance minister Enoch Godongwana has shown that progress in the water sector has been made under Operation Vulindlela, which aimed to accelerate the implementation of key growth-enhancing reforms.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the release of the initiative’s second-quarter report on 7 August, Gondongwana said that draft legislation for the National Water Resource Infrastructure Agency has been finalised and will be published for public comment shortly.<\/p>\n
He said that this would enable major investment into the country’s bulk water resources.<\/p>\n
On top of investment, calls for the involvement of the private sector have been heard, with the establishment of a Water Partnerships Office between the Department of Water and Sanitation and the Department Bank of Southern Africa to open up private sector participation in water infrastructure and management.<\/p>\n
Gondongwana said that additional reforms around the monitoring of water quality at a municipal level would have a fundamental impact on the way in which the water sector is managed and will ensure future water security.<\/p>\n
\nRead: One of South Africa\u2019s biggest banks says the shift to flexible working is paying off<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Africa’s ageing water infrastructure managed by municipalities is pushing the country away from reliable and safe water supplies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":615329,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-615317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615317"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":615455,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615317\/revisions\/615455"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}