Water Pollution: Department must take responsibility for Hartbeespoort Dam

On 28 June the Department of Water Affairs responded in a media statement to plans by a certain civil society organisation to bring criminal charges against the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Buyelwa Sonjica, for not effectively dealing with the ongoing pollution of the Hartbeespoort Dam. The Departmental response was characterised by denialism, and did not respond to the dire state of affairs that exists in the dam and surrounding rivers, caused by among other things, untreated sewage from failing waste water treatment plants. The fact is that the buck stops with the Department of Water when it comes to enforcing compliance with national legislation and regulations in the water sector. It is high time that the Minister and her senior officials admit that they are not doing enough to protect South Africa's water resources from various sources of pollution, and recommit themselves to enforcing all aspects of the National Water Act.

The threat of criminal charges against the Minister follows recent charges laid by the Transvaal Agricultural Union and the National Water Forum against the Minister for allegedly not protecting water courses from pollution. There are numerous other cases across South Africa where individuals or ratepayer organisations have laid charges against local government officials for not upholding aspects of our water laws. It is evident that many South Africans have grown tired of promises to improve the state of our rivers and dams that yield little or no results. It appears that the Minister and her Department are going to face more and more charges in the future unless they show the willingness to fix the problems.

The Department's response on its efforts to remediate the Hartbeespoort Dam outlines a number of action steps it claims to be taking. What the response does not provide is an honest assessment of the effectiveness of the actions that have already been taken.  The Harties Metsi Ame Remediation Project, formally started in 2006, is claimed by the Acting DG of the Department, Nobu Ngele, to have made much progress. While citing a few project outcomes in the Departmental response, the real question the Department needs to answer is what is the health of the dam today, and how does it compare with a baseline, whether it be at the start of the project or at some other time in the past.

There is a strong scientific component to this remediation project, which means that its implementation must be accompanied by continued measurements of biota and water chemistry, both in the dam and the broader catchment area, and this data must be publicly available to scrutiny by the scientific community. This is not happening, and therefore it is difficult to determine in any meaningful way the success or failure of the more than R40m already invested in the remediation programme.  Simply having a project is no defence to possible charges against the Minister if the project is not achieving any meaningful outcomes. The Department should respond by commissioning an independent audit of outcomes achieved and money expended, and an assessment of whether the skills of people attached to the project are adequate in order to ensure success. In this regard I will write to the Minister to request that such an audit be conducted.

The Departmental response to a threat of a criminal charge against the Minister also outlines steps it claims to be taking to improve waste water treatment in the catchment area of the dam. It rightly points a finger at Madibeng Municipality for its serial polluting of the dam from failing sewerage infrastructure, and says that the Department plans to strictly enforce the Green Drop compliance standards for waste water treatment works. It is important to note however that in the most recent Green Drop report, released in April this year, the waste water treatment works in Madieng Municipality were not even assessed, as the municipality had failed or was unable to present the Department with the required information.  

So while the Department must force the municipality to comply with standards, the question that the Department has not answered is why it allowed these particular failing waste water treatment works to fall into their current state of disrepair. While the upkeep of the works is the responsibility of the municipality, the regulatory oversight is with the Department. The Department must act immediately to force the restoration of these works to an acceptable state.

The Ministerial response calls the threat of charges against the Minister "unfortunate" and urges the collective involvement of all stakeholders to fix the problems. The reality is that it is not the job of community organisations to ensure the enforcement of water law; it is explicitly the job of government and law enforcement agencies. Government needs to respond positively when it is criticised, and show the will, through measurable actions, to turn things around.

It is important that the state of the Hartbeespoort Dam shows sustainable improvement from any interventions being made. There are several other dams that are arguably in a worse state than Hartbeespoort, including Rietvlei and Roodeplaat dams, and so finding mechanisms to improve dam health that are transferable, where applicable, to other dams is an imperative.

Statement issued by Gareth Morgan, MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of water and environmental affairs, June 30 2010

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter