(Archive photo: Unsplash)
The Department of Water and Sanitation’s plans for race-based water reservation and greater curtailment powers are not going to remove the real structural barriers that limit water access.
This is what AfriForum says after the department’s recent presentation on Tuesday to the parliamentary portfolio committee on water and sanitation regarding the proposed national water amendment act of 2026.
Moreover, this is despite the fact that serious concerns that were already raised during public participation in the 2023 draft bill have still not been resolved.
According to AfriForum, it appears that the department is determined to proceed with far-reaching amendments that are based on simply untested assumptions, while critical public comments seem to have been completely ignored.
The organization further notes that it has not yet received any meaningful feedback from the Department of Water and Sanitation regarding the formal objections it already submitted in January 2024.
Untested claims about water rights
A core concern is the department’s assertion to parliament that according to existing legal usage, water rights are “normally stockpiled” and withdrawn from economic use.
Marais de Vaal, AfriForum’s advisor for environmental affairs, says the department has so far failed to make public the factual basis for these allegations.
“There appears to be no quantified evidence indicating the actual extent of alleged hoarding, the amount of water believed to be withheld from productive use, or the extent to which it prevents transformation.
“Yet these assumptions are now being used to justify far-reaching curtailments and reallocation powers.”
(Photo: Gamtoos Irrigation Board)
Structural bottlenecks are ignored
AfriForum points out that the department admitted in its own parliamentary presentation that approximately 50% of existing legal use has still not been verified nationwide. This while only 75% of irrigation councils have been transformed into water user associations – and this almost three decades after the National Water Act 36 of 1998 originally came into force.
According to De Vaal, the proposed legislation tries to force transformation while the actual structural barriers remain largely untouched.
“The department itself recognizes that the real barriers include land ownership, financing, infrastructure, training, licensing support and incomplete verification of existing rights.
“Instead of directly addressing those bottlenecks, the proposed amendment moves increasingly towards race-based reservation mechanisms and stronger state control over existing rights.”
(Photo: Gamtoos Irrigation Board)
Contradictory logic and economic danger
AfriForum further argues that the department’s argument – that unused existing legal uses prevent water from being used productively – is logically completely contradictory.
The same problem will simply arise where race-based reserved allocations remain unused in an environment where the underlying structural barriers, such as financing and infrastructure, have not been resolved.
In such a scenario, precious water may simply remain unused while at the same time productive users are excluded from access. This will ultimately mean that everyone in the country is left worse off.
De Vaal warns that the department’s handling of cases shows that race-based ideology currently overshadows rational policy-making.
“The department’s treatment of existing legal users as the primary obstacle to transformation, despite evidence that this is not the real bottleneck, means that race-based ideology overshadows rational policymaking. Ultimately, it will undermine meaningful participation in the water economy.”
AfriForum has therefore made an urgent appeal to the parliament to investigate the department’s assumptions properly and thoroughly before any amendments are accepted. If the legislation is pushed through in the same way, it could have serious and far-reaching consequences for agriculture, food security, investment confidence as well as the rule of law in South Africa, says AfriForum.