Prof. Mike Muller says politicians can’t not intervene and then complain when there’s a water shortage.
Water expert Prof. Mike Muller says poorly managed cities will always lead to “a lot of water problems”.
“I think what we’re finding in South Africa is that our local government isn’t up to the job,” he said.
Speaking on Newzroom Afrika, he said that South Africa’s water crisis needs to be better managed.
“The combination of using uncontrolled amounts of water and losing a lot of water through leaks means there just isn’t enough water in the system sometimes, particularly during hot weather,” he said.
The former water affairs director-general made these remarks as areas across South Africa, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and Gauteng, regularly have no water running out of their taps.
Water crisis: More intervention needed
Muller also criticised the government for not implementing more shutdowns, to allow for more frequent maintenance of the water systems.
“At the moment, they don’t want to intervene in the water supply because then they’re admitting a bit of a failure,” he said.
“The consequence we’re seeing in Johannesburg is that there are a whole lot of areas where the water gets switched off and on every night, or every second night, and what that’s doing is damaging the infrastructure.”
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WATCH: Prof. Mike Muller on South Africa’s water crisis
Muller said the pressure on the system, caused by switching the water on and off, is creating more leaks.
“[The authorities] are trying to avoid a city-wide intervention [by urging residents to] save water and [introducing] penalty tariffs… but what we’re going to see is that the leakages and the losses are going to grow.”
“The politicians can’t have it both ways. They can’t not intervene and then complain when there’s a shortage.”
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KZN floods damaged infrastructure
He says there are still areas in KwaZulu-Natal that have had no water supply for months as the municipality scrambles to fix infrastructure damaged during floods.
He said a reason for the massive damage during those floods is that authorities had not protected the pipes properly.
“Once you have that problem, it takes a long time to fix,” he said.
“The lesson from KZN is, don’t let your maintenance slip because it’s very easy to lose a pipeline but much more difficult to build it.”
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