Department of Water and Environmental Affairs water services chief director Helgard Muller has conceded that there are serious issues surrounding the efficient use of water and, if these are not tackled, “we are heading for a crisis in certain systems”.

“However, I would not call it a national crisis,” said Muller during the United Association of South Africa (UASA) Water Security seminar, held last month in Johannesburg.

He mentioned that, in Gauteng, there was a need for more-efficient water use and new systems to deal with demand and supply issues.

“We have been advised by Johannesburg Water that, if there are no interventions, the area will lose about 3% of its water a year.”

Some of the challenges that the department faces include poor operation and maintenance, inefficient water use, acid mine drainage and historical backlogs, where 59% of people had access to clean water in 1994 and, at present, 93% people have access.

Muller pointed out that the department would analyse and quantify the problems at municipal level and that it needed R40-billion for regional bulk water supply and R60-billion for internal bulk water supply.

“We are not sure if we will get the money, but there are proposals with the National Treasury to increase the funds for water and sanitation. For future sustainability, we are looking at ensuring that the money collected for water and sanitation is ploughed back into these services,” explained.

Development Bank of Southern Africa technical expert Pavel Polasek warned that, to solve the water problem, all water ser- vices should be taken away from the muni- cipalities and be placed under a national agency that must be established.

“There must be total depoliticisation of municipalities, so that they can be run by experts and professionals, who know what they are doing,” said Polasek.

He emphasised that drinking water should be of wholesome quality at all times.

“This means that water should not contain such organisms and concentrations of substances as to have a detrimental effect on the health of people or indicate that the possibility of such an effect exists. It must be safe from a health point of view and may not endanger the health of man by either infectious and parasitic vectors, or chemical substances of objectionable character, or both, and must be palatable and aesthetically acceptable.

“Therefore, the stringency of the drinking water quality standards should be updated to meet the requirements of socially and economically developed South Africa without any undue delay. The Blue Drop certification should be revised and the waterworks design upgraded to allow the water purification process to take place under optimised reaction conditions in order to purify the raw water to its best attainable quality at all times.”

He said that only qualified specialist con- sulting engineers should be appointed to design waterworks and this should be mandatory as is the case for the design of large dams.

University of Pretoria department of geography, geoinformatics and meteorology head Professor Hannes Rautenbach said that climate change in South Africa was a reality in terms of temperature, but not so much in terms of the amount of rainfall a year.

“However, it seems that the seasons are shifting with the result that summer rain- fall seasons may in future be shorter and winter rainfall seasons longer. This means that excellent planning is needed to prevent possible water shortages during dry spells in future,” Rautenbach said.

UASA CEO Koos Bezuidenhout concurred that South Africa was facing a serious water situation.

“With this conference, we aim to signal the start of a loyal resistance programme and not [one of] confrontation, but of earnest cooperation with the authorities to solve the country’s water problems,” said Bezuidenhout.