Chairperson, hon Minister and Deputy Minister, and hon members, while the Departments of Water Affairs and Environmental Affairs as well as Forestry are responsible for the provision of bulk water supply, the municipalities and water boards of South Africa are critically involved in the delivery of clean water to the end users. For the provision of water to operate optimally, we need the whole chain to be working simultaneously. Regrettably, there are mixed results when it comes to water provision at the local level. It is an area that the national department needs to keep a close watch on.
The 2012 Blue Drop Report was released last week. An impressive 153 municipalities and 931 water systems were audited, and more than 1 900 water samples were taken, which is more than ever before. The good news is that the national Blue Drop score rose from 72,9% in 2011-12 to 87,6% in 2012-13. This means that overall, on average, the management of water systems has improved. This is in no small measure due to the actual Blue Drop mechanisms, which guide water service authorities on how to achieve compliance and make public the results at the end of each year for all to see. Particular praise must go to the Gauteng and Western Cape provinces, which obtained scores of 98,1% and 94,2% respectively.
Unfortunately, there are huge concerns with regard to unsafe tap water in 58 towns under the management of 14 different municipalities. The Minister has issued a warning that the water in these towns is not fit for human consumption unless it has been either boiled first or treated with a disinfectant. This situation is an indictment of the management of these municipalities. Water provision is a core function of municipal governance. It appears evident that these municipalities do not have the level of competency to perform the basic functions of municipal governance.
Four of the worst performing municipalities in the latest Blue Drop Report are from the Eastern Cape. Kou-Kamma Local Municipality has deteriorated from a weak 14,36% in 2011 to 5,6% in 2012; Ikwezi has dropped from 26,55% to 7,91%; O R Tambo District Municipality has dropped from 43,69% to 22,70% and Sunday's River Valley Local Municipality has dropped from 35,55% to 25,37%. There are similar situations in certain other provinces, including the Free State, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape.
The Blue Drop Report has now alerted the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs to where the main problems are in municipalities. The department and the relevant provincial departments dealing with co- operative governance need to ensure that corrective action plans are implemented, timelines are in place and regular monitoring occurs. Moreover, if the worst performing municipalities cannot comply with norms and standards for whatever reason, then they should sign agreements with other entities, particularly water boards, for them to become the implementing agents for the management of water quality.
While the new Green Drop Report has not been released since mid-2011, I hope that the worst performing municipalities are being kept by the department to their corrective action plans.
Understanding the importance of the role that municipalities play in the provision of water to our people, I have, over the last few months, taken the time to see for myself, at first hand, the situation on the ground. When I visited Marquard, I found that it had been without water since the beginning of the year. Limited supplies of about two hours per day were available and water tankers had to bring in water from Clocolan on a daily basis. A private company has, at its own expense, installed water pipes and donated five pumps to assist this community. The situation could have been avoided if timeous repairs had been made to the dam wall. Human dignity is at stake in these towns and urgent intervention is required. In Ventersdorp sewage is running down a street from the wastewater treatment works and there is no evidence of urgency in the municipality to fix the problem. Marquard and Ventersdorp are just two examples of towns with water problems.
In Hoedspruit the town has suffered an intermittent water supply since the floods earlier this year damaged the treatment plant. In Carolina, for a period this year, tap water was compromised due to pollution from mine water.
Ailing infrastructure and transmission leakages are common across South African municipalities. Just the fixing of leaks in infrastructure would be a material intervention in increasing the water supply in South Africa.
Many municipalities are also compromising the performance of water boards through the nonpayment of debt. As at the end of 2011, R1,2 billion in debt arrears was owed to water boards. The water boards worst affected are Sedibeng Water, Lepelle Northern Water and Bushbuckridge Water. In each case, individual municipalities hold these water boards to ransom through nonpayment.
While there has been some improvement following dispute resolution processes, the problems are severe. These situations affect the ability of water boards to make capital expenditure investment and hamper their ability to make repairs to infrastructure. The Departments of Water Affairs and of Environmental Affairs as well as Forestry need to show greater leadership in settling disputes between municipalities and water boards. Where necessary, contractual arrangements between water boards and municipalities need to be tightened.
But there is also an issue of policy that needs to be considered by the Treasury. Many municipalities, as I have noted today, are not adequately performing their roles when it comes to water provision. Treasury needs to seriously consider making portions of the equitable share paid to weaker municipalities conditional on their being used exclusively for water provision.
It must be noted that the water boards are reporting an increase in the cost of purification, mainly due to the decreasing quality of bulk water as a result of pollution. This is a good reason why compliance and enforcement by the national department or the catchment management agencies have to improve, as pollution is resulting in an externalising of costs to the consumer.
An institutional review of water boards is currently under way. The DA is supportive of a rationalisation of the water boards, from the current 12 down to a more viable 8 or 9. Larger water boards, benefiting from economies of scale, could impact positively on water provision in a greater area of the country. The performance of municipalities with regard to water provision is mixed.
In conclusion, although the department's ability to identify problems at municipal level has improved, the ability urgently to assist with localised water crises needs improvement. South Africa has made so many significant gains in water provision since 1994. We must not allow it to be undermined by weak governance at local level. [Applause.]