Chairperson, today I am standing in for Ms B D Ferguson, who is overseas. I am going to do my own speech and not hers.
In August 2012 the Financial Mail had a very dramatic front page with the question: Is water in South Africa under pressure? The hon Minister referred to that yesterday at a breakfast briefing she had held. Let's unpack this question. The conclusion of the article was that, because of years of neglect in vital areas of infrastructure, which happened before 1994, we might be on the brink of a crisis. We can blame a little bit of this on apartheid. Unfortunately, however, since 1994 there also has been a little bit of neglect in terms of our infrastructure.
Failing infrastructure, neglect of timeous investment and bad management are the major culprits. Add to that an under-resourced national department and incompetent local municipalities, many of which have no capacity left, and add to that the state of our old dams, our canals, pipelines, tunnels, monitoring and treatment facilities, and - according to Razina Munshi of the Financial Mail - there is a problem.
In fact, and this was said yesterday by the Minister, we need almost R700 billion over the next 8 to 10 years to address this backlog. We haven't got that money. The problem is very similar to what we have experienced with Eskom. We have waited for too long and delayed the decision to upgrade for too long, and now the problem exists. We cannot blame the Minister, but the problem is now on her desk and she must address it and hopefully she will try to do that.
We need economic growth in South Africa and without electricity and water it will not happen. Water is a vital component of economic growth, as is energy, and we must all realise that.
More than 75% of our water assets were constructed between 1960 and 1990. Our infrastructure is an average 40 years old. Dam walls can last for 300 years, but the national government water infrastructure replacement value is now set at R140 billion and it depreciates at a rate of R1,4 billion per year.
Add to this that the quality of our rivers is rapidly deteriorating: 82% of our rivers are threatened and 44% critically endangered. This is not an infrastructure problem, but a management one and that's making the problem even worse.
Last year I asked the hon Minister, almost on my knees, to save the perennial rivers of the Kruger National Park. I do not think she has even visited the area. I do not think that anything has happened in one year to address the culprits in the catchment areas of these rivers. Agriculture and mining activities just carry on as before and it remains a crisis.
The Vaal River is under strain from theft, leaks and pollution. This system supplies 45% of the South African population with water and 60% of the economy with water. If there is a river that should be a national key point, it is the Vaal River system. [Laughter.]
We are losing almost 37% of water through leaks, and R11 billion was lost just through leaks. Municipalities are failing us. Ordinary South Africans who steal water and do not report leaks fail their country. In Gauteng alone, we lost R7,8 billion in terms of theft and leaks; that is two and a half Hartebeestpoort Dams.
Our conveyance systems are not in good order and in some instances not in place. That is why communities living next to big dams do not have clean water. Yes, our Blue Drop score is up to 88% - congratulations on that - and that is a big improvement. But our Green Drop assessment reports that 317 plants are in a critical condition.
Yes, between 1994 and 2012 water access rose from 60% to 95% for the population. The legacy of apartheid has almost been addressed, but the brunt is on the deep rural areas of South Africa. Hopefully the Minister will deal with that, and she said she would.
The challenge remains with municipalities that are not delivering. The infighting between municipalities that are sharing water resources and creating water shortages are driving the civil unrest. The Makhado and Vhembe Municipalities in Limpopo are a case in point.
There was no water in Colesberg for weeks. People are protesting and civil society is going to court to enforce their rights. Statistics show that service delivery protests now occur literally every second day in South Africa. More than 2 million South Africans have participated in it annually since 2008. The Wikipedia named us as the protest capital of the world, not good for our image as a destination that needs investment to grow the economy.
We cannot allow water to become a fuel for civil unrest. The department must take the lead at all levels to rescue us and protect all our water systems. What we would like to see is a far more aggressive approach against nonperforming municipalities and action against nonlaw-abiding farmers as well as mines in the catchment areas of our important rivers.
Let's see some action; let's see more Blue Scorpions. Let's build on what the hon De Lange has said, for he gave some direction here today. Let's pursue that. Let's appoint a permanent director-general to this department; I think he has been acting for more than two years now. We owe it to ourselves and to generations to come. Let's treasure our water. Thank you. [Applause.]