Deputy Speaker, thank you very much for the opportunity for this very important debate. It is indeed disappointing that Ministers are not present; most notably the newly appointed Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, who, no doubt, still has to come up to speed with this very important portfolio. I take the hon Ambrosini's point of view that indeed Minister Manuel should be here as well.
The timelines for water planning are indeed very, very long and we need to be able to sit down and think, not only about what is going on now, but about what is going to be happening in many years to come.
Many of my colleagues, quite rightfully, including the hon Bhengu, raised the issues of climate change, which is indeed going to change the water landscape in South Africa completely.
I would like to highlight one thing first and that is what hon Manganye said, "If there is not water, there will be not freedom." And she is correct to have pointed that out. Indeed, a lot of people have had access to water over the past 16 years. That is a great achievement, one that I am more than happy to point out.
But the risk at the moment, ladies and gentlemen and hon members, is that a lot of water that has been provided is under threat because of failing infrastructure. It's no good providing people with water if, when they turn on their taps, it is green, containing E.Coli or, indeed, when they turn on their taps, nothing comes out.
Now there are local places in South Africa where indeed water once was provided and is no longer being provided. We don't want that situation to prevail and we don't want it to be the norm. That is why I called for this constructive debate on what needs to be done and to analyse the problems, going forward.
A lot of our colleagues here raised issues about water quality: hon Ndude, hon Swart, hon Greyling, and hon Alberts. Indeed, the dilution capacity of South Africa is very weak because we have had such low available resources. The more pollution we put into the system, the harder it is to ameliorate that pollution.
The skills crisis is indeed very, very severe and was raised by a number of our members here today. But we must be careful - many of these municipalities had the skills. It's not necessarily up to the national Department of Water and Environmental Affairs to fix the skills crisis in the municipalities.
The separation of powers in the Constitution provides that municipalities must take care of their own skills requirements. So, let's make sure, particularly in the ANC municipalities, that we keep good people in employment, the ones who know how to keep the waste water treatment plants working and the purification plants working, which is not what happened in Madibeng, as raised by my colleague the hon Lorimer.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a serious debate, we must debate it over and over again. I would like to thank all of you for the submissions that you have provided. Thank you very much.
Debate concluded.