It’s highly appropriate to be celebrating National Water Week since what we have nowadays is national water. Minister Kader Asmal’s department of water affairs and forestry (DWAF), to use opposition party words, “frogmarched” the National Water Bill into law back in July 1998. Since then, government has been the public trustee of the nation’s water resources. That was the practice run, the blueprint, for the “biggie” last year’s nationalisation of minerals without compensation.
And we’ve lots to celebrate now that Minister Ronnie Kasrils mans DWAF’s helm. Bravely he has uplifted all the blame for future failures, assuring us that it’s ‘the function of government to ensure that its people have adequate water supply and sanitation services a mandate that cannot be delegated, outsourced or privatised.’
He did add that ‘for many years the private sector has helped government to supply water services, and has improved water supply.’ That means, as well as paying the whole costs of government, the private sector has had to roll up its sleeves and do some of the work.
Nationalising water rights reduces property rights and land values. The 1998 Act did not prompt such a sudden investment exodus as last July’s minerals nationalisation debacle. But banks and mortgage-holders are starting to feel the effects of reduced land security as the ‘mills of DWAF grind slowly but exceeding fine’ and new water management legislation takes effect.
Obviously the water for burgeoning urban needs has to come from somewhere, and the rain falls mainly on the forests and farms. It’s like robbing banks because that’s where the money is. Or nationalising mineral rights without compensation instead of buying them from existing owners or paying them usage royalties.
10% of the country’s forested and collects 60% of the rain. This thirsty industry’s a sitting waterduck whose ‘higher water usage demands proper control’. Quick as a flash (2002) DWAF got around to billing forest-growers for their rainfall, calling it a ‘water resource management charge’ for using ground water and surface water. Unlike householders, foresters can’t save costs by reducing usage, but hey these big corporates can afford it. Or anyway they can’t ‘up sticks’ like Tolkien’s ents.
Minister Kasrils says water management is strategic and the money is for government to allocate water equitably, monitor and control pollution, conserve water, and plan. Part of the plan is for ‘wall-to-wall’ regional water management boards financed by such usage charges. DWAF is setting up these boards slowly if something’s not worth doing, it’s not worth hurrying. Some may think white owners of large farms will be the main victims and black would-be owners of small farms will be the main beneficiaries. But the uncertainty about getting and renewing temporary water rights from officials with discretion (to accept bribes) will affect farmers large and small.
And like any cash-strapped minor ministry, DWAF’s not short of creative thinkers. Shortly after the Act was passed, farmers asked how the proposed water management boards would compensate them if successfully sued for damages after ‘diverting’ the water in farm rivers and dams. Perfectly seriously, DWAF proposed that the boards, lacking funds of their own, should negotiate with the judge and if necessary forfeit some of their expropriated water back to the farmer. Pay them off with some of their own water!
It’s quite a relief that since last August’s WSSD summit there hasn’t been much noise from local eco-natzis about the perennial ‘coming water shortage’. Roughly 6 million South Africans still lack access to clean water, but that’s not for lack of water, and we have the Minister’s word that he’s working on it. Most NGOs take no pleasure in having a go at the government they need for their next ” there should be a law …’.
And for all the lunatic choruses about water as a scarce and precious resource, on this soggy and ocean-covered planet of ours clean water is almost the cheapest of life’s necessities. It’s likely to remain so, since the market knows endless ways to supply and save water at affordable prices, from user-charges to wheat imports, desalination and towed-icebergs. Deep underground aquifers even hold water enough to support billions of people for centuries and, unlike fossil oil, water is self-renewing.
There never was or will be a water war. All foreseeable water problems are soluble (!) by affordable economic trade-offs in a water free-market. Water is a superabundant natural resource. Only state water monopolies like DWAF can create an artificial water shortage.
Author: Dr Jim Harris is a freelance researcher and writer. This article may be republished without prior consent but with acknowledgement to the author. These are the author’s views and they may not be shared by all the Foundation’s members.
FMF Article of the Week/18 March 2003
