Water supply crisis: Solutions outside traditional municipal framework now needed
21 August 2024
AfriForum emphasises that cooperation between the private sector and communities is now the only way out in the impending water supply crisis in which water boards and municipalities are involved. This follows in response to information from the auditor general which points out that water boards are under serious pressure because municipalities do not pay for their services and this could eventually lead to large parts of the country’s taps running dry.
Municipalities’ debt burden to water boards already amounts to several billion rands and has a direct impact on communities’ water supply. According to AfriForum, it is worrisome that this financial mismanagement and inefficient debt collection is jeopardizing millions of South Africans’ access to clean water.
“The popular solution among water boards to apply water pressure reduction and punish the end consumer is not the answer either. The end consumer must not be punished because municipalities do not fulfill their constitutional duties to pay water boards,” says Lambert de Klerk, manager of Environmental Affairs at AfriForum.
AfriForum believes that the answer no longer lies in traditional municipal structures. The overwhelming evidence of mismanagement, as highlighted in the recent financial year, indicates that citizens can no longer rely on municipalities to act responsibly in the management of water supply and finances.