Knysna Water Crisis

GOOD Statement by Brett Herron, Unite for Change Leadership Council Member and GOOD Secretary-General:

Residents of Knysna can breathe a massive sigh of relief at the news that Gift of the Givers has stepped in to help alleviate the town’s water crisis, and that they won’t be entirely dependent on the short-term interventions of politicians and officials.

The Knysna Municipality has, for decades, been steadily run into the ground by a combination of ANC- and DA-led Councils. What they’ve had in common is that none have had the necessary skill and foresight to pay sufficient attention to the development of water and sewerage infrastructure.

Last year, the DA-led Western Cape Province tried and failed to place the ANC/PA/EFF-led Knysna Council under administration, but still, the crisis mounted. Last week, the Council declared the water situation a local disaster, while on Saturday, the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Pemmy Majodina, visited the area.

None of these “interventions” will relieve residents facing a water day-zero in 10 days as much as the fact that Gift of the Givers is conducting what it terms a large-scale emergency intervention.

The organisation has, over the past 10 years, developed a remarkable body of work providing water to parched South African communities, not least in the Eastern Cape, where it has drilled hundreds of boreholes,

installed hundreds of water tanks, and delivered hundreds of thousands of litres of water in bottles and container trucks. Most of the infrastructure installed during the Eastern Cape drought continues to serve communities today.

The Knysna disaster is partially a consequence of drought, and partially a consequence of underinvestment and underwhelming management by government at all levels. It is a graphic example of many other areas in the Western Cape that have failed to respond to the impacts of urbanisation. Knysna’s water infrastructure was built decades ago to cater for what is about half the town’s population today. As in many other municipalities, there is an abundance of skilled people in Knysna, which is not matched on the Council.

Besides its failures in long-term thinking, the Knysna Municipality, Western Cape Government and the Department of Water watched the situation develop but failed to implement short-term measures to avert a full-blown crisis.

Gift of the Givers’ emergency intervention will provide critical support to that of the State and, importantly, provide a bit of breathing room for the State to catch up with and overhaul the crisis.

We salute the organisation for its compassion and humanity in action.

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