GOOD CALLS FOR MORE INVESTMENT IN THE ENVIRONMENT: greater allocations for clearing invasive plants from catchments will increase job creation, increase water supply and provide cheaper water to towns and cities
Mark Rountree, National Policy Officer for GOOD
10 August 2020
On Friday the National Department of Water and Sanitation closed its comment period on proposed changes in raw water charges for the Western Cape’s Berg and Olifants catchments for the 2021/22 financial year.
In its submission, GOOD has appealed for much greater investment to be made in the labour-intensive, job creating catchment rehabilitation programmes which remove invasive alien vegetation from our river and wetland catchments.
The Berg and Olifants catchments supply almost all of the water to the City of Cape Town, Stellenbosch and surroundings towns, and provide all the water for the critical agricultural sector in these regions. Invasive alien trees suck up a large dam’s worth of water each year, but just R8 million is proposed to be spent on clearing these infestations from these critical catchments.
INVEST MORE IN CATCHMENT CLEARING TO LOWER WATER COSTS FOR CONSUMERS – AND CREATE JOBS
The alien clearing programmes are funded from the money that domestic and industrial bulk water users, like the City of Cape Town, pay for water. Whilst consumers pay between R17 and R79 per kilolitre of water, just 5 cents per kilolitre is paid to the Department of Water and Sanitation for catchment management and operations within the catchments. Ten percent of the catchment income goes towards alien clearing. This means that, for Cape Town, just half a cent from each R17 to R79 paid per kilolitre of water goes to alien clearing.
GOOD says this is not nearly enough. Money invested in alien clearing provides twelve times as much water as the same money spent on desalination plants. Over the last 3 years, the City of Cape Town has spent at least R800 million on desalination plants – 100 times more than will be spent on alien clearing in the critical catchments that supply most of the city’s water.
Most of Cape Town’s water comes from rivers which flow in to our dams. Cape Town reports that it costs R5 per kilolitre for water that it gets from dams compared to R39 per kilolitre for water from desalination plants. However, ratepayers may have paid as much as R65 per kilolitre for some desalination water (reports indicate that the R250 million desalination plant at Strandfontein produced just 3.8 million kilolitres).
Despite the obviously cheaper cost of getting more water from catchments that are cleared of invasive alien vegetation, the City of Cape Town is inexplicably considering a further desalination plant.
GOOD does not support expensive desalination plants, especially when they are linked to alleged political party donations. Instead, we suggest that an increased allocation to catchment management is needed – more than the current 5 cents from each R17 to R79. Minor increases – even just by another 5 cents from each R17 – in the allocation to the catchment management agency would enable the scale of clearing to be increased several fold. This would mean more jobs in the province; an increased flow of water to our dams; and overall cheaper sources of water available to our towns and cities.
MAINTAIN SUBSIDIES FOR LABOUR-INTENSIVE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR
Agriculture is a critical employment sector. GOOD confirmed its support for continued subsidies for agriculture in the form of lower raw water costs. Subsidies keep food prices lower.
The lower water charges, relative to domestic and industrial users, also incorporate the reduced assurance of water supply for agriculture. During times of drought, for example, agricultural water allocations were disproportionately cut to ensure that water for residents in towns and cities were maintained.
Whilst we support the agricultural subsidies, GOOD has advocated for further efficiencies in where and how water is used by agriculture. Water approvals should consider mechanisms to discourage the planting of very water intensive crops, like onion seed for example, or the expansion of thirsty forestry, within drier parts of the country where water resources are very scarce.
Our governments should always look for the best options for stimulating job creation and the most affordable options for delivering essential services.
This means we must protect and manage strategic water source areas – keeping them clear of alien vegetation – so that our catchment areas can provide more water for our people and our economy.