Pretoria: The Department of Water and Sanitation has issued a directive to the current owner of the Riverlands dams to safely decommission the failed dams. Reflecting on the Ministry’s performance during its first 100 days in office at a media briefing held in Pretoria on Tuesday, Water and Sanitation Minister, Pemmy Majodima, said a series of inter-linked, privately-owned dams failed on a farm near the town of Riverlands in the Swartland Local Municipality, Western Cape-during the 100 days-causing extensive damage to municipal infrastructure and houses in the town.

According to South African Government News Agency, the Ministry visited the site of the dam failures, met with the community, and oversaw an investigation into the failures. ‘The preliminary investigation report found that the original owner of the farm who built the dams failed to obtain the legally required approval from the department for the design of the dams, and that subsequent owners failed to register the dams with the department as requ
ired by the National Water Act. As a result, the dams were not regularly inspected, and signs of imminent failure were not identified timeously. Following the release of the investigation report, the department issued a directive to the current owner of the dams to safely decommission the failed dams,’ Majodina said.

She further mentioned that further investigations are underway to determine liability for the damages caused by the dam failures. The incident, which occurred on 08 August 2024, saw the failure of three farm dams that breached, resulting in flooding which caused severe property and infrastructure damage to the affected area, leading to hundreds of people being provided with humanitarian assistance.

In additional reports, Majodina also stated that the report into the Jagersfontein Tailing Dam in the Free State has been submitted to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) following the laying of criminal charges against the dam owners by the department in 2022. During the 100 days, the departmen
t completed its comprehensive technical investigation into the 2022 failure of the Jagersfontein Tailings Dam, which resulted in three deaths and one person declared as missing, as well as extensive damage to public and private property.

Meanwhile, the department will launch Phase One of the Hammanskraal water project on Saturday, 16 November 2024. The project includes the provision of an additional 12.5 megalitres of water. The Ministry visited Hammanskraal on 24 August 2024 to oversee a R750 million project which the department is implementing through the Magalies Water Board to enable the provision of clean drinking water.

Majodina also reported that a Special Purpose Vehicle by the Rand Water Board and the Emfuleni Local Municipality is in the process of being established. This follows an oversight visit by the department to Emfuleni Local Municipality in Gauteng on 25 August 2024, where the department, through Rand Water, is implementing a R7.5 billion intervention in terms of Section 63 of the Water S
ervices Act to address sewage pollution from the municipality’s wastewater treatment systems. As a result of the intervention, the number and frequency of sewage spillages into the streets and people’s homes have been significantly reduced, and work is underway to completely eradicate sewage pollution in the municipality.