DA requests urgent meeting between Minister & Premier to resolve North West Water Crisis
1 December 2020
Note to Editors: Please click here for soundbites in English and Afrikaans by Leon Basson MP, North West Provincial Leader.
I have today written to the National Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation, Ms Lindiwe Sisulu MP, and my colleague, the DA Caucus Leader in the Provincial Legislature, Winston Rabotapi MPL, wrote to Premier Job Mokgoro, where we request an urgent meeting to consider the North West Water Crisis and resolve on short, medium and long term interventions to ensure that the people of the province enjoy access to clean water supply in their homes.
Public representatives of the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the North West are inundated with pleas for help to resolve the water crisis.
Collectively, North West municipalities owe Sedibeng Water in excess for R1,5 billion in unpaid debt which is now rendering the water board unable to ensure water supply to meet demand. The water board is struggling to meet its obligations, specifically with regards to procuring chemicals for water purification and maintaining and expanding infrastructure to meet demand.
Due to the complete collapse in local governance in each municipality in the North West, the water reticulation infrastructure throughout the province is in an advanced state of decay due to a lack of effective maintenance and adequate upgrades resulting in millions of cubic litres of purified water that go to waste instead of into the taps in people’s homes.
The failure to expand the water infrastructure hampers the expansion and establishment of sanitation networks, which also, unfortunately, finds itself in an advanced state of decay. Throughout every North West town, raw sewage leaks are a common sight in town centres and in communities. The seeping raw sewage not only poses a public health hazard but also pollutes freshwater sources and streams, leading to environmental degradation, which negatively impacts on the agriculture, conservation and tourism industries.
Without adequate water supply and infrastructure, there can be no adequate sanitation services. Coupled with the security of electricity supply, these three crucial services form the foundation of all social-economic activity.
The lack of water and sanitation services in North West is indicative of a failed state where even the basics, the supply of water and sanitation services, cannot be guaranteed. This is a failure in the constitutional mandate of local, provincial and national government and it infringes on the Human rights of citizens, who are constitutionally entitled to enjoy access to water and dignified sanitation services.
Not a single municipality in North West has a local water management plan. Failure to plan is quite plainly planning to fail – and this is exactly what has happened in the province.
The DA in North West is currently conducting an extensive audit on the water and sanitation problems in every town and community in the province and we will we make that specific information available to government in order for them to respond immediately to the water crisis so that ordinary citizens can enjoy some relief.
It is a betrayal of our freedom and our Constitution that people in North West have to endure the collapse of basic services as a direct result of the total collapse in governance here.
It is now crucial for people in North West to realise that the ANC in government has failed and the only way to rebuild what has been destroyed is to elect a new DA-led government in every municipality in the province.
Issued by Leon Basson,DA North West Provincial Leader, 1 December 2020
