Archive photo (Photo: Freepik)
Despite indications that the presidency’s national water action plan has been finalised, the plan has still not been introduced to the public.
AfriForum believes that the continued delay in announcing this plan predicts that the biggest weakness will be the implementation of this plan.
The Minister of Water and Sanitation, Pemmy Majodina, informed Parliament on 1 June that the national water action plan includes reforms related to accountability, infrastructure maintenance, asset management, financial sustainability, water conservation, support for struggling municipalities, alternative service delivery models and measures to combat corruption.
This indicates that the plan has been developed to such an extent that members of the executive authority can summarize its content publicly. To date, however, the plan has not been released to the public.
“The presidency’s failure to publish the plan without a good reason only fuels uncertainty and undermines public confidence that the government is handling the water crisis with the urgency it requires,” says Marais de Vaal, AfriForum’s advisor for environmental affairs.
AfriForum emphasizes that the promised interventions reflect what it and other supervisory institutions, engineers and water experts have been recommending for years. For example, the Auditor General’s recent report on South Africa’s water sector closely reflects these priorities, identifying poor maintenance, poor accountability, insufficient institutional capacity and poor coordination as the causes of the crisis.
AfriForum has written to the presidency to demand clarity about the inexplicable delay in the publication of the plan, despite repeated promises by President Cyril Ramaphosa that it has been completed and will be released.
“The government’s own independent constitutional watchdog has already investigated the crisis, identified the responsible institutions and provided a road map for corrective steps,” adds De Vaal. “If the government agrees with those findings, it should be implemented. If it doesn’t, it should explain why. What the government cannot do is continue to hide behind another committee and another delayed action plan while communities continue to suffer the consequences of failed water services.”
The organization argues that the failures that caused the country’s water crisis, as well as the corrective measures to solve them, are well documented. However, residents of the country increasingly see a pattern in which the government responds to crises by announcing new committees, task forces, indabas, interventions and action plans, while implementation remains absent.
“The concern is not a lack of knowledge, but a lack of implementation. The government is increasingly creating the appearance of action instead of actually acting. Communities without water do not need another committee or action plan. They need leaky pipes repaired, sewage treatment plants fixed, infrastructure maintained and officials held accountable for failures.”