Cape Town - Authorities have pointed the finger at farmers being among the worst culprits in stealing water meant for the public.
This as the Drakenstein Municipality indicated that it would assist the Department of Water and Sanitation in patrolling the Berg River.
Images surfaced last week allegedly showing illegal pumping of Berg River water and the use of sandbags to redirect water meant for domestic and industrial use to private dams of local farmers.
The department had released up to five million cubic metres of water from the Voëlvlei and Berg river dams to the Misverstand Dam last week to supply municipalities on the West Coast with water for domestic, industrial and agricultural use.
The Drakenstein Municipality said its law enforcement had obtained temporary Blue Scorpion status and were now empowered to enter farms and remove or confiscate illegal equipment used to redirect water.
While it was difficult to determine how widespread the problem was, Water and Sanitation Department spokesperson Sputnik Ratau said municipalities, industries and domestic users were also transgressors in the province.
“This was because some water users were found to be non-compliant, while others work towards compliance. So it is a moving target.
"The department would carry out an inspection and where illegal activity was found to be happening, there were processes within the National Water Act that can be used as guidelines,” said Ratau.
He said the department would pursue criminal charges against transgressors, depending on the seriousness of the transgressions and against where there were continuous transgressions.
The department had also hauled a Clanwilliam farmer to court earlier this year, following allegations of unlawful water activities.
The farmer faces five charges which include failure to meet the requirements for issuance of a licence before constructing a dam with safety risk; failure to produce a licence to construct a category 2 dam with safety risk before construction; and failure to register and to submit an application to register dams with a safety risk within 120 days to the Department of Water and Sanitation after completion of the dam.
The broader impact of such transgressions was the unavailability of the precious resource for those users downstream, said Ratau, as well as negative impacts on the environment and the water itself.
West Coast District Municipal manager David Joubert said co-operation between the municipalities of Drakenstein, Swartland, Berg River, Saldanha Bay and Stellenbosch would ensure the protection of water sources.
“Structures prohibiting the watercourse flow are being removed and there has been general and obvious cooperation by property owners along Berg River Dam to the current flow points.
“The instance of non-co-operation has been dealt with by the notice issued by the Department of Water and Sanitation, and regular visitation and monitoring.
"There is a sincere hope that the good co-operation will persist and that the end goal, as was announced during the media briefing last week by the minister and MEC, will be achieved,” said Joubert.
Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell warned those considering extracting water irregularly from river systems in the West Coast region.
“Our municipalities are already acting on these reports and will not hesitate to act as harshly as possible against any parties found to be guilty of any wrongdoing in this regard.
"This is also the case for the entire Western Cape. We are working closely with multiple government agencies to address this situation,” said Bredell.
He said the province was in a severe drought and required delicate management of the system to ensure all communities had water to drink.
In the city, collective water consumption over the past week was 507 million litres per day, thanks to Capetonians saving water.
This figure is 35 million litres lower than the previous week’s spike in average consumption of 542 million litres per day and close to the city’s record low of 506 million litres per day, which was achieved on March 9.
However, dam levels have declined by 0.9% to 20% - the highest rate of decline seen over the past few weeks, due to a large release of water from the Berg River Dam.