Gauteng water consumption remains high - DWS
Leonard Basson, chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation, says water consumption in Gauteng remains alarmingly high.
Basson briefed Parliament on the water shortages in the province on Monday.
He says an average person in the province consumes 279 litres per person per day, compared to the global average of 173 litres.
"This is unsustainable. We urge the residents to use water more efficiently and call on municipalities to urgently fix and reduce water losses to protect the integrity of our systems.
Basson adds that approximately 49.5% of treated water in Gauteng is classified as non-revenue water.
"We must understand that we cannot just put the burden on the resident to say you must use less water. The municipalities need to fix this water. If we talk about 49% of our water is not paid for, those who are paying are paying for that water."
He said 41% of the country's drinking water goes down the drain.
Basson called on the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs to assist municipalities in addressing water leaks.
"The Department of Water and Sanitation will forever build new dams, costing billions to ratepayers, if COGTA is not coming to the party with solutions, how they will assist municipalities to fix water leaks.
"The challenges we face are not due to a lack of resources or technical ability. They are the result of poor planning, mismanagement and weak accountability. We must act with urgency, discipline and strong leadership to fix our water and sanitation system."
DWS Portfolio Chair adds that the committee made recommendations to National Treasury to consider withholding part of municipalities’ equitable share so that the money paid can be used to pay water boards to ensure that they do not collapse.
"I must just say that if a municipality is owing a water board and five other municipalities are paying and we have a huge amount of money that's outstanding to that water board and that water board fails to produce clean water, even those municipalities that are paying for their water will not be able to receive any water.
"The first tranche of the equitable share was withheld after numerous discussions with National Treasury, where the committee insisted that National Treasury come up with a resolution.
"We did not see our way forward without National Treasury, COGTA and the Department of Water and Sanitation coming to an agreement on how we will deal with municipalities that don't pay for their water, and we cannot put our residents at risk when these water boards are collapsing and they can't get water.
"Without accountability, the system cannot sustain itself. In addition, we must urgently address the high volume of water losses through leaks throughout the country. When we look at the delays and the cost overruns on infrastructure projects, that is a major problem for the committee."
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