Chairperson, hon Minister and Deputy Minister, and hon members, I rise on behalf of the DA on the occasion of the debate on the Water Affairs Budget Vote. Water is life. Water is economic growth. Water is the basis of our food security. Many of us take it for granted, but it is literally the lifeblood of South Africa. Water is also a source of conflict. It is not in abundance, particularly not in Southern Africa. This evening, I want to reflect on where we are as a country with regard to water provision, the leadership that is being offered in the sector and the pitfalls along the way.
Water, or the lack thereof, poses a security risk to South Africa. This has been recognised by the Department of State Security, which has now established a dedicated intelligence unit that will focus on water, food and environmental issues. The impacts of climate change, industrial expansion and large-scale pollution, particularly acid mine drainage and failing waste water treatment plants, all pose risks to our collective security and wellbeing.
It is thus incumbent on the Minister and the Departments of Water and Environmental Affairs to provide the leadership and far-sighted planning required to secure our water future. Until quite recently, leadership in the department has been an issue of serious concern. But there is evidence that the ship is being turned around. Finally, with the position having been vacant for 30 months, a new director-general was appointed in January 2012. I welcome Mr Maxwell Sirenya to this important position and wish him the best of luck.
Vacancies at senior management level are of serious concern. As of early March there was a 32% vacancy rate in posts at levels 13 to 16. There has been a recent period of shortlisting and interviews, so hopefully most of those posts will be filled by next month.
Vacancies can be debilitating to a department, particularly a department like this, which is desperately trying to turn around a recent run of qualified audit opinions. Fortunately, relatively soon after being appointed to this position, the Minister set up a Business Process Re- engineering Committee. At the top of the list of challenges that this committee is engaging with is addressing the Auditor-General's report and management letter for 2011 with regard to the Water Trading Entity and the Main Account. Corrective action is well under way. While it is too soon to expect an unqualified audit opinion from the department this year or next year, I hope it will be achieved in 2014.
It is important to take stock annually of access to water. Great strides have been made since 1994 with regard to the provision of water, but we should not rest on our laurels. Between April and December 2011, 450 000 South Africans were served with a basic water supply for the first time. This was below the goal for the period, but was not necessarily the fault of the department, as a common problem is that some municipalities do not correctly target their spending towards water infrastructure.
The challenge of water provision is far from over. According to Statistics SA figures, adjusted on the basis of reports from the Department of Co- operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, about 2,5 million South Africans are without access to a basic supply of potable water. This equates to 5,3% of the population. This means there has been an impressive 87% reduction in the backlog since 1994. Currently, the provinces worst affected are KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo, with about 1,31 million and 0,54 million people without access to a basic supply.
The government needs to be commended on already having achieved the 2015 Millennium Development Goal with regard to water provision. However, according to Outcome 9 in the Presidency, South Africa's own target is 100% provision and that still needs to be achieved.
It is not clear whether the water provision figures are absolutely reliable. We know that there are South Africans who have access to infrastructure but cannot enjoy the full benefits of reliable, safe water provision because the infrastructure is unreliable or failing. About 25% of people have access to a tap but without an acceptable level of service. For this reason we need no further motivation to make the rejuvenation of dilapidated infrastructure an absolute priority. Special surveys in the department have indicated a national picture of 74% functionality of water delivery across the country.
This is good reason to have a global vision of water provision in South Africa. While the Departments of Water Affairs and Forestry and Environmental Affairs has a number of responsibilities, including the regulation of water services, supporting water service authorities, establishing and overseeing institutions and collecting revenues, it is the water service authorities, mostly our municipalities, that deliver water to our people. Notwithstanding some governance issues that are being sorted out in the national department, the key areas of concern in water provision are at the local government level. Lack of skills and capacity, a shortage of revenues and the misuse of grant funding contribute to failing infrastructure at this level. For example, in the Free State 9 million kl of water is lost by municipalities each month.
Funding for infrastructure, whether building new or maintaining old infrastructure, is always a challenge in a country with so many competing needs. At the moment, bulk projects under way or nearing completion and funded through the department include the Olifants River Project, the Mokolo-Crocodile Rivers Project, the Mdloti River Project, the Olifants- Doorn Rivers Project and the Greater Letaba River project. Off-budget projects, mainly funded by the Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority, include Phase 2 of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project and the Mooi-Mgeni Transfer Scheme. There are also various regional bulk infrastructure projects being implemented by the department. So, there is certainly a lot of infrastructure development going on. As noted in my reply to the President's state of the nation address in February this year, while it is laudable and necessary that there are a number of new bulk water infrastructure projects under way, what are we doing about existing infrastructure? It is estimated by the department that the maintenance backlog for national water infrastructure, including dams and major conveyance systems, is Rl5 billion. This does not include the backlogs at local government level, which are substantial.
It is at the local government level that funding is most challenging. The Minister's recent comments about the possibility of including the private sector in the managing and operation of infrastructure like waste water treatment plants are most welcome. The state has shown that it cannot manage the problem alone. Unique arrangements with the private sector could help bring skills and capacity to the local government level where they are sorely lacking. The Minister's recent comment at the World Water Forum, that the government hopes to attract R25 billion from foreign investors to help finance infrastructure maintenance and overcome backlogs, is also warmly welcomed.
The department is also being very thoughtful at the moment about future water governance systems. There is a legislative and institutional review under way. Among other things, it has already been announced that the number of catchment management agencies, CMAs, will be reduced to nine, a sensible suggestion that will allow for the capturing of economies of scale and more effective funding of operations. Currently, only two CMAs are operational. The lessons learnt from these two CMAs will be crucial for optimising the roll-out and functioning of the remaining CMAs.
The National Water Resources Strategy, NWRS, is currently being reviewed. We know that in certain areas the sustainable amount of usable, quality drinking water is exceeded by the demand for water, which poses a significant risk to these areas. I look forward to the release of this strategy. In anticipation of its release, I trust that it will guide what water allocations are feasibly possible for the future, rather than attempting to justify the use of water for certain sectors where it is clearly not feasible. In this regard, the NWRS should not necessarily be taking its lead from other government policies like the IRP2010 and the New Growth Path, but should rather be doing a harsh critique of whether those policies and their priorities are feasible under future scenarios. For example, with available water resources, how much can we responsibly mine and where should that mining occur?
The Departments of Water and Environmental Affairs needs to lead water planning. Our future economic growth, particularly if it does reach a level of 8%, is going to require the smart and efficient use of water resources. It is worth pointing out at this stage that the draft National Development Plan is sadly very short on highlighting water governance and water scenarios leading up to 2030. This is surely an area the drafters need to revisit, but perhaps the NWRS can inform those deliberations.
A thorough water licensing process is key to a fair and defendable water allocation process. It is a common cause that there is not much more water in South Africa available for allocation, and so the licensing process requires credibility. Project Letsema has made admirable progress on processing water use licensing applications. However, a number of stakeholders in South Africa remain concerned about the process of consultation around licence applications with interested and affected parties. From the department's point of view, there does appear to be discretionary public participation when it comes to water use licences. In a recent reply to a parliamentary question, the Minister noted that:
There is a prescribed process to deal with inputs of interested and affected parties that applicants must follow if and as directed to by the responsible authority.
This is a significant weakness in the National Water Act, Act 36 of 1998. Water is treated as a side issue in environmental impact assessments under the National Environmental Management Act, Act 107 of 1998, and the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, Act 28 of 2002. Water is often shifted to the considerably weaker participation process under the National Water Act, Act 36 of 1998. The need for integrated permitting is stronger than ever before and I hope this is something the Minister will deliver upon as soon as possible.
The mining sector in general is an area that needs improved monitoring from the department. The recent case of infiltration of suspected acid mine drainage into the Boesmanspruit Dam, which is an abstraction point for drinking water, affected the quality of water in Carolina. While the Minister and the department responded quickly, the initial pollution should never have happened.
In Delmas, there is significant concern among the farming community about operations at the Leeuwpan Coal Mine, where the department itself has issued a notice against the mine for unlicensed action in terms of the National Water Act, Act 36 of 1998. I urge the Minister to accompany the Blue Scorpions on some enforcement visits to see whether mines are operating according to the terms of their licences and to take strong action where transgressions are discovered. I ask the Minister to visit the Leeuwpan Coal Mine in particular and engage with the affected stakeholder and mine management about the concerns.
In conclusion, in debating this budget we are debating the future of South Africa. The investments we make today will have far-reaching consequences for South Africa.
It is true there are many problems in the water sector, but there is also very credible work being done to deal with these problems. I commend the Minister for her leadership so far in this department. Significant progress has been made over the last year. Let me pay tribute to the many good men and women of the department, who have had to work under difficult circumstances to keep the department afloat.
I thank the chairperson of the portfolio committee and my colleagues in the committee for the constructive environment in which we work.
We can celebrate some successes, as long as we know that the tasks ahead in securing our collective water future are immense. Collective leadership and political will are the key components to ensuring that our development goals are achieved. [Applause.]