‘Political interference’, not rainfall, at the heart of SA’s water crisis – expert

It is a bleak picture; residents queuing at tankers, and suburbs in Johannesburg go weeks without running water.

Low dam levels and "Day Zero" threats are being experienced in places like George and Knysna.

In his State of the Nation Address on Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced he was setting up and would chair a National Water Crisis Committee.

Experts say this is less about rainfall and more about ageing pipes, broken pumps and systems that have not been properly maintained.

Chris Campbell of Consulting Engineers South Africa says it's a combination of factors that have brought us here.

"The key issue that we probably sit with here is the question of whether it's funding, engineering or politics."

Funding is important, says Campbell, but it's not the main constraint.

"The bigger problems are the loss of engineering capacity, procurement paralysis and, unfortunately, political interference in operations, and weak accountability."

Campbell says money is spent in a dysfunctional system, which then accelerates failure.

"So, from an engineering standpoint, governance failure is the dominant risk to recovery."

It's a sentiment shared by Professor Mike Muller from SAICE’s Water Division Committee.

"What I see, in particular at Johannesburg Water, is a lot of quite competent engineers, but they are completely hamstrung by the politics around them."

Muller says the answer lies in unlocking the capacity of those engineers.

"If we do that, I think we might find we will get results quite quickly."

The situation in Joburg is a relatively simple fix, suggests Muller. The issue is not the amount of water in the dams, but how that water gets into people's homes.

"Actually, we need to spend money on something quite boring, putting in 2,000 kilometres of new pipe."

President Ramaphosa, during his State of the Nation Address, said the government had committed R156 billion in public funding for water and sanitation infrastructure over the next three years.

To listen to Campbell and Muller in conversation with 702's Bongani Bingwa, use the audio player below: