EMG presentation to NWRS-2 parliamentary hearings

Thabang Ngcozela and Taryn Pereira

Parliamentary hearings, 31 October 2012

Who is EMG?

www.emg.org.za

Environmental Monitoring Group is an independent non-profit organisation established in 1991.

We play an active leading role in water related civil society, with a particular interest in the relationship between water and climate change, from an environmental and social justice perspective.

We are members of the South African Water Caucus, who met on the 16th and 17th of August to discuss the NWRS-2.

Water scarcity for whom?

www.emg.org.za

Climate change is real, and is going to exacerbate existing scarcity. At present, water is most scarce for those who cannot afford to pay for it. It is crucial that water for people’s health, livelihoods and dignity are prioritised over other human activities, so that poor people do not carry the burden of climate change.

The reserve – ecological and human needs – must be enforced.

Ideas for pro-poor technical strategies in the NWRS-2

www.emg.org.za

• People-centred water conservation and water demand management at a municipal level

• Productive water for small-scale farming

• Citizen based monitoring, support for catchment management forums

internet:http://www.emg.org.za

Ideas for pro-poor technical strategies in the NWRS-2

• The emphasis on cost recovery at a municipal level means that water demand management and debt management are conflated, and WC/WDM becomes punitive water restriction for poor households. In this way, the right to water is undermined

• People-centred WC/WDM should rather involve training of artisanal plumbers for leak fixing (and job creation), targeting of hedonistic and wasteful water use, citizen monitoring of water services, fairer tariff structures, and stronger regulation of municipal water services with a view to protecting the qualitative right to water

• For e.g. in the southern Cape drought, capping water consumption for EVERYONE had the effect of reducing overall water demand and of making access more equitable

Fracking: where will the water for fracking come from? How will this water be cleaned? The NWRS-2 should clarify whether SA can afford to even think about fracking, and DWA should play a leading role in raising these concerns and protecting our water, even against powerful mining interests

Desalination: hugely energy intensive, very expensive, all four of the salt-water desalination plants built during the southern Cape drought of 2009/10 are now mothballed

Water trading and offsets: market-based solutions work for the wealthy and powerful. What is needed is strong regulation and a paradigm shift e.g. towards the right of nature.

www.emg.org.za

Beware of false solutions

www.emg.org.za

Concerns with the participatory process for NWRS-2

No translation into other languages, or even into ‘layman’s English’

Very opaque information regarding meeting dates and processes

Short time frame for comments and no funding for civil society engagement limits the chances for meaningful engagement

THANK YOU

www.emg.org.za