“The water quality issue is technical, historical and political,” says Prof Greg Ruiters of the Institute of Social and Economic Research.
“The water quality issue is technical, historical and political,” says Prof Greg Ruiters of the Institute of Social and Economic Research.
Ruiters took those present at Monday evening’s forum through the historical patterns of water supply in Grahamstown and recalled how in the 50s the “massive expansion” of water through transfer tunnels was driven by an attempt to curb white rural depopulation.
He also tackled the issue of “skills shortages” being blamed for the situation. “The issue of critical skills shortages exists in the country as a whole and there are distinct problems of skills shortages in small towns,” he explained.
“But it also has to do with the macro-economic policies of the country as a whole, and our cities which have set the wrong priorities and have promoted the wrong kind of growth.”
He asked why is there a “systemic problem” in the public sector where we see a drain of doctors, nurses and engineers but we train “thousands of students to become stockbrokers”.
The consequence of this problem, he said, is that almost 70% of municipalities cannot confirm the safety of their water quality.
He added that there is an acute lack of skilled people particularly in sewage and purification. “Municipalities no longer offer bursaries to young engineers who could then be employed in this sector,” he noted.
He attributed the water crisis to cities moving from a citizen welfare approach to an entrepreneurial approach where appeasing investors is the most important thing.
He cited the upcoming World Cup as an example of how temporary initiatives meant to attract investments seem to be elevated above the delivery of basic services.
“Much of the creative resources in government go into urban spectacles such as conference centres, sports stadia, malls, Disney Worlds and the like,” he said.
He argued that cities are competing with each other to attract environmentally and politically unsustainable kinds of investments that put undue strain on our infrastructure.
“The idea that cities serve citizens and that basic things radilike public water supply are priorities have been slowly eroded since the 1970s under the weight of urban neoliberalism,” he added.
Many cities have invested billions in World Cup stadia. These as we are seeing are highly speculative investments and part of a more general macro-economic malaise.
He encouraged people to ask questions which go far beyond Grahamstown or playing the blame game. “It is time to reverse the triumph of the politics of image and return to substance and democracy,” he warned,adding that the water crisis offers locals a great opportunity to unite a highly divided town and to reorient our city leaders and the university.
“Let’s use it to educate ourselves that there are no privatised solutions. There is a limit on how much bottled water you can buy or afford”.
