THE proposal by the Minister of Human Settlement, Water and Sanitation, Lindiwe Sisulu, that South Africa’s dams be declared national key points, could not have come at a better time.
Controlled access to these important water resources is an urgent need.
Declaring State-owned dams national key points will protect water infrastructure from vandalism and encroachment, as well as reduce the number of mishaps such as drownings.
The theft of water pipes and other infrastructure has become unacceptably high around most water resources.
Added to this are reports of mysterious poisoning of water in some reservoirs that often result in downstream users becoming sick.
The uncontrolled entry into State-owned dams poses security risks, for example people interfering with sluice gates that may lead to floods, or even the malfunctioning of these sluice gates.
It is also important that the personnel based at these infrastructures not be interfered with as they carry out their duties.
Access to water and security of supply of the resource cannot be compromised.
Locals lose out
Sisulu also pointed out that a number of the dams do not provide water to local populations that live around them.
This is because these were initially built as single-purpose dams, serving mainly interests far downstream instead of also providing for those living in close proximity to the dams.
Ironically most dams are used by affluent communities for recreation purposes such as boating and fishing.
After 25 years in the new democracy era, there is no justification for wealth being the sole determining criterion of access to dams.
Consequently, the only option left to hapless communities is to fetch water from polluted rivers and streams.
It is for this reason that the minister and department intend turning some of these single-purpose dams into multi-purpose facilities, thus reversing the anomalies of the previous thought processes.
There are about 5 000 dams in South Africa, with a combined capacity of 37 000 million cubic metres.
A total 350 of these are owned by the State, and these account for more than 90% of South Africa’s total volume of water.
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