South African Water Minister Senzo Mchunu plans to overhaul the national water industry and strip municipalities of responsibility for its provision, as interruptions to supply anger citizens two months ahead of national elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sweeping reforms are intended to attract private investment, enforce accountability for non-performance and remedy a crisis that has seen outages nationwide, including this month across a swath of Johannesburg, a city of around six million people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am very, very, very worried,\u201d Mchunu said in an interview on Wednesday at a sustainability conference in Johannesburg. \u201cI want this thing to go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mchunu\u2019s plans come as opposition politicians seize upon the interruptions as evidence that water supply is a developing crisis in Africa\u2019s most industrialized economy as they campaign ahead of the May 29 ballot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The country is already hindered by the failings of the state logistics company to fix snarled ports and freight-rail lines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Almost daily power cuts, one of which interrupted Mchunu\u2019s speech at the conference, are also hindering economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mchunu expects parliament in the coming weeks to approve the creation of a National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency to oversee major projects and, later in the year, to amend existing legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those changes will see municipalities tasked with appointing water service providers whose licenses to operate will depend on a level of performance. If those standards aren\u2019t met, municipalities will have to appoint alternative providers, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The changes will also earmark income from water provision for the upgrade and repair of infrastructure and to fund partnerships with private companies<\/strong> rather than increasing \u201csalaries for councillors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those providers could be existing agencies such as Johannesburg Water Management, with new rules about where its revenues go, private companies or other models, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMunicipalities are unlikely to turn themselves in the near future into formidable providers of water,\u201d he said in an earlier speech. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIndications are that it\u2019s going to take a while, and people want water now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other changes he sees include an independent body to set prices and tariffs for water in three-year cycles to provide certainty for consumers and investors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even those who live in shanty towns should pay, he said, because if they can afford mobile phones and televisions, they can afford water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mchunu bemoaned the state of the water distribution system, saying Johannesburg loses about two-fifths of the treated water it gets through leaks and theft. eThekwini Municipality, where the city of Durban is located and where 3.9 million people live, loses 46%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018My Disappointment\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Consumption needs to fall as the country is short of water because of its climate, and \u201cthat is not going to change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, progress is being made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second phase of the R40 billion ($2.1 billion) Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which supplies water into the river system that Johannesburg and the wider commercial hub of Gauteng relies on, had stalled when he became minister in 2021 and has now been revived. It\u2019s expected to be completed in 2028.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He listed a further R73 billion of projects underway but said Johannesburg Water alone needs R27 billion and will have to tap the private sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m still reviewing legislation and regulations, and I\u2019m doing it late,\u201d he said, having explained that the department was short of senior staff when he joined. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt should have been done years ago. That\u2019s my disappointment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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