Competent people in South Africa's water sector were replaced with ANC-deployed cadres and this led to the water crisis that SA is currently experiencing.
Feedback from water scientist dr. Anthony Turton, from the University of the Free State, is that South Africa's water supply is in a major crisis. "Is it a crisis? Well, I work a lot with the commercial world, and I tell them that we've been deep in crisis since 2002,” said Turton. A characteristic of the problem is that 46% of the country's water is undrinkable, according to the government's latest Blue Drop report. The root cause is that 90% of the country's waste water works are to some extent dysfunctional. This collapse filters through the country's drinking water because the water system is based on 'indirect reuse'.
Turton explains that water from wastewater works is sent to the nearest river after treatment and is then later picked up by bulk water plants, which then further treat the water and pump it to the end user. Therefore, if the water is not treated properly at waste water plants, it will lead to the water supplied to end consumers being unsafe.
"I think we will have to start with appointing competent staff without political interference in the first place. That's the most important thing," Turton said when asked how to solve the crisis. "This whole idea of cadre deployment in the water sector, as far as I'm concerned, has brought us to this point where we are today. It's a national crisis. It's an existential threat to the viability of our national economy," Turton said.
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