In October, residents of Coronationville took to the streets to protest against persistent water outages that left them with only two hours every morning (2am to 4am) to wake up and fill buckets and baths with water that they would be able to use during the day.
Ludicrous does not even begin to describe this situation. However, it is but one of many forcing people to scramble to survive.
Last week we heard about the billions owed to Rand Water and the threats to disconnect illegal connections by informal settlements that have been without water for years.
There are certain basic human rights that, one would think, hardly bear mentioning and reinforcing. One of these, enshrined in section 27 of the Bill of Rights, is that “Everyone has the right to have access to sufficient food and water”. The Bill of Rights also says: “The state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of… these rights.”
Yet here we sit in Gauteng with a mounting crisis, while officials clutch at ill-conceived short-term solutions.
The problems are well ventilated as relating to ageing and ailing infrastructure that is resulting in more than 40% of our water being lost to leaks and burst pipes, illegal connections and poor revenue collection systems. This assertion does not seem to have elicited the alarm and action it warrants, because this has been known for years. The crisis is compounded by increasing temperatures resulting in higher water use, as well as the disproportionate access to and use of water by residents in affluent areas.
When I was growing up in the Eighties and Nineties, our teachers reinforced how water was a precious and finite resource, and that we were never to use it in a wasteful way. They made it sound as though, if we left a tap running or failed to report a leak, fire and brimstone would be unleashed upon us. This, however, does not seem to be a sentiment shared by officials charged with providing water services to people.
The question that has yet to be answered is whether or not the state has in fact taken “reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation” of people’s right to water. And if not, what should the consequence management of this be?
However, the inconvenient truth being overlooked is that water is political. In an article by Ufrieda Ho in the Wits research magazine Curiosity, the dean of the faculty of humanities, Professor Mucha Musemwa, explains that “it is a case of not having the right kind of leadership dedicated to resolving problems. The South African government is complicit in perpetuating inequities, as it has taken… little action against corrupt officials who siphon off resources earmarked for water and sanitation development”.
The unfortunate result of this dereliction of duty is that, as usual, the people most affected are the ones who are the most vulnerable and can ill afford to be without water, as they do not have the resources to seek out alternative water sources such as personal boreholes. DM