Deputy Speaker, through you, I would like to get back to ... The hon Minister has mentioned that we've just emerged from a drought, and that we are a water-scarce country and that there are areas that are affected by drought. I would like to bring that in with regard to water pollution, specifically our sewerage infrastructure. I hail from the Free State, and we have municipalities like Matjhabeng, Mafube and Ngwathe where we have raw sewerage running into the Wilge and Vaal rivers and, even in between, some of our townships and our suburbs.
What is being done to ensure water security by ensuring that our rivers and our water sources are protected from things like sewerage? Thank you.
The MINISTER OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS, WATER AND SANITATION: Thank
you, hon member. The matter you are raising is one that we will
be attending to with the Deputy President in Sedibeng tomorrow. It has proportions that are completely unacceptable.
This situation comes about as a result of ageing infrastructure. The amount of sewerage that is carried through our pipes is greater than what he had anticipated. We need to do a complete overhaul of some of our systems to make sure that we are able to carry these through to water-waste treatment plants and carry them back to normal usage.
We are also thinking of investigating the possibility of separating pure water, water treatment and sanitation so that the systems run completely separately. This would mean that we would, at no point, have an overflow such as we have right now where we find sewerage spilling into our water.
This will take some technical assistance. It will also take a lot of resources to put in place. But we do know that we have that problem and we are dealing with it.
Tomorrow we will be in Sedibeng and we will make public what our understanding and our solution to the problem is. Thank you.