Water may have to be taken from the ”haves” for redistribution among the ”have-nots”, Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Buyelwa Sonjica said on Tuesday.
To address inequities in access to water, ”it may be necessary to reallocate water between users”, she said at the launch of a draft position paper in Pretoria on water-allocation reform.
”Some water may be taken from existing users to give to those who have none.”
This will be a complex process requiring extensive consultation, the minister said.
But she warned: ”We shall not permit it to be dragged out by intransigent refusal to cooperate in the achievement of the righting of historic wrongs.”
Access to water is at present a predominantly white and male privilege, Sonjica said.
Having ensured basic access to clean water for more than 10-million people in the first 10 years of democracy, the government’s focus will now shift to ensuring fairness in access to water for productive purposes and in sharing the benefits arising from that use.
”We need to ensure that water can be made available to black entrepreneurs, to women, to the disabled,” the minister said.
This should, however, be done in such a way that the so-called first economy is sustained and able to grow.
”You cannot kill the hen that lays the golden egg,” Sonjica said.
The reform process will not protect existing vested interests, ”nor will there be a water grab”, she added.
”We need to ensure that water is available to a wide range of users, from small-scale farmers and SMMEs [small, medium and micro enterprises] to the biggest and most wealthy industrial and agricultural users.” — Sapa