The Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation has called on the Department of Water and Sanitation to enhance monitoring in order to ensure adequate safety standards for its dams and private dams, so that the safety of people downstream is not threatened.

This comes after reports of the collapse of retention walls at the Riverlands Dam on Thursday.

Following a meeting held on 1 November 2022, the committee raised concerns with the department about the lack of capacity within the Dam Safety and Management Division.

‘The committee highlighted that this lack of capacity negatively impacts on the ability of the department to enforce Chapter 12 in National Water Act, Act 36 of 1998 (s117 – s123). It also increases exponentially the risk factor for communities residing downstream of dams and requires immediate action from the department,’ the committee said.

The committee also raised concerns about the cumulative total backlog of 474 dam safety evaluation (DSE) reports from the department.

‘It is important
that these dam safety evaluation reports are concluded to enhance the safety of communities. The committee will in the near future request the department to provide an update on eradicating the identified backlog of dam safety evaluation reports,’ Basson said.

Source : South African Government News Agency