Hundreds of homes including this church were damaged when three retention dams belonging to the government collapsed resulting in the flooding of the Riverlands community in the Swartland Municipality District last month. Picture: Henk Kruger/Independent Newspapers
Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina has once again warned dam owners to register them before they are prosecuted for non-compliance.
Her department has prepared a notice to be published in the government gazette calling on owners to secure permits for operating the dams.
Out of the 5703 dams, only 323 were owned by her department.
She made the remarks when delivering her executive statement in the National Assembly on measures being taken by her department on dam safety.
This came after the recent failure of four dams in the Swartland Local Municipality affected the community of Riverlands and destroyed houses as well as municipal infrastructure.
“We must ensure the notice (in the government gazette) will give all dam owners and those who wish to construct dams to apply for the licences and those who already have dams must also apply for licence so that they are recorded and registered accordingly for them to account on those dams,” Majodina said.
The Riverlands disaster has brought the attention of dam safety into sharp focus again following the collapse of a storage dam at Jagersfontein in 2022 that resulted in flooding of the townships of Charlesville and Itumeleng in the Free State.
“The two incidents make it important to highlight the issues pertaining to safety of dams in South Africa. Dams should be protected by those who build them.”
Majodina said the National Water Act as well as departmental regulations required dam owners to register dams and comply with regulation pertaining to the type and size of the dams.
“Over and above the registration of dams, the owner must apply for dam safety licence to alter and repair dams before construction commences,” she said, adding that a registered engineer must conduct dam safety every five years and submit dam assessment reports to the department.
It has since come to light that the collapsed dams in Swartland Municipality were owned by the Department of Land Reform and Rural Department, which found the dams on the farm it bought and leased out.
Regarding the Jagersfontein dam collapse, Majodina said the department has concluded criminal investigations and the docket has been handed over to the NPA.
“The matter is expected to be enrolled in 2025.”
Her department has appointed the University of Pretoria and Wits to conduct a forensic technical investigation on the failure of the Jagersfontein storage facility.
“The report may be used in criminal proceedings and therefore can’t be made public until advised by the NPA.”
She added that they would engage with the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and the National Treasury to find ways of assisting municipalities that owned dams and required support to make their dams safe.
EFF’s Rebecca Mohlala said the Riverlands incident was not the first and would be the last.
“We have a leadership that refuses to take responsibility,” she said.
ANC’s Sello Dithebe said they welcomed the action to prioritise the focus on dams and address dam safety evaluation backlogs to prevent future disasters.
Cape Times