Deputy Chairperson, hon MECs present and hon members, it is common knowledge that some 98% of all available water has already been allocated in South Africa. The lack of availability of new water resources may soon become a major restriction of growth in the country.
Scarce water impacts on social as well as economic development. South Africa is the thirtieth driest country in the world and faces the challenges of a growing population and economy. The building of more dams is not always the answer.
The Department of Water and Environmental Affairs is completing the De Hoop Dam in the Limpopo province. It has recently approved the implementation plan for the second phase of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project at a total investment cost of R15,4 billion by the year 2020. This project, in addition to the existing Katse Dam in Lesotho, should ensure an adequate water supply to the Vaal system until approximately 2045.
The World Bank has in addition recently approved a loan of R554 million to support the government of Mozambique's National Water Resources Development Project which aims, amongst other things, to strengthen the development and management of national water resources and to increase the water from the Corumana Dam on the Sabie River in the Maputo province.
The Minister of Mineral Resources grants licences for mining operations with little or no interaction with the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs. Mining companies must be held accountable, as we have heard, after mines are closed, and must ensure that mine areas are rehabilitated.
Acid mine water, the result of groundwater flowing through underground shafts, is decanting from an old uranium mine near Krugersdorp and rising half a metre a day beneath Johannesburg.
Government is adamant that it is managing the problem, but despite a November 2011 deadline to start a water treatment plan, a R225 million allocation from Treasury has yet to be paid to the parastatal mandated to implement the plan, namely the Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority.
It is reported that up to 43% of the R934 million requested for long-term water treatment will be spent on staff salaries, transport and accommodation and not on treating the water! Something urgent must be done before our other limited water resources are contaminated. Hopefully, some of the treated acid mine water will be suitable for at least agricultural purposes.
South Africa is amongst the biggest emitters of carbon dioxide in the world and certainly the biggest in Africa. Many parts of the continent are vulnerable to changes of climate because of the large variability in rainfall, which has in recent history caused severe multiyear droughts and disruptive flooding in various parts of the continent.
Development projects and plans need to build in resilience to future climate change. So developments need to be designed to cope with a wider range of climate conditions than those prevailing at present.
In my own province, the Free State, the seasonal changes have adjusted by at least two or three months. Whatever the outcome at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its upcoming Cop 17 meeting in Durban, the climate will continue to warm, with dire consequences for Southern Africa, until hopefully somewhere in the future global warming will be brought under control and stabilised.
The threats to water quality in our country are numerous, whether it is failing wastewater treatment plants, bursting water pipes because of poor maintenance at municipal level, runoff from agricultural pesticides or industrial pollution. Likewise action must be taken against industries, farmers and users that are using water illegally.
Unless we start recycling water in a massive way and unless we start utilising new sources of water such as the desalinisation of sea water, used on a large scale in the Middle East, but which is an expensive process, the country's economy will not grow. New jobs will not be created and human environmental health will be put at risk.
The government wishes to create more jobs through mining and agriculture, both of which use lots of water. The Minister stated at the 2011 Green Drop Awards that despite the increase in the wastewater plants assessed, the systems that scored more than 50% had decreased from 49% in 2009 to 44% in 2011. The DA welcomes the approval of the National Waste Management Strategy and trusts that it will be vigorously implemented. I thank you.