Vaal Clean-up: Eyebrows Raised over ERWAT Appointment

IOL.co.za recently placed an article, echoed by ERPA – The following is an extract from this article: 

Earlier this month, Water and Sanitation Minister Gugile Nkwinti announced that he had appointed the East Rand Water Care Company (Erwat), an entity of the Ekurhuleni Metro, as the implementing agent for the initial R341m Vaal sewage clean up.
“As a wastewater specialist company, Erwat will ensure that all wastewater treatment infrastructure is resuscitated to an operational state and that pollution in the Vaal River is stopped,” Nkwinti said.

But water adviser, Professor Anthony Turton, was critical of the firm’s appointment.
“Erwat is a persistent and known polluter of the Hennops River. Therefore, to now appoint them to rectify the highly complex problem in the Vaal, at great cost to the taxpayer, does not represent good value for money.”
He wondered if Nkwinti understood the complexity of the Vaal river problem, where sewage infrastructure had collapse.

Click this link to see the full article: https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/gauteng/vaal-clean-up-eyebrows-raised-over-erwat-appointment-21632333

This article elicited some hard response, which compelled ERPA to publish this survey, to formalize public response to the decision by Minister Gugile Nkwinti to appoint Erwat, under questionable circumstances.

Here is the position of Dr. Anthony Turton, a well known and respected authority on the state of water in South Africa (refer to our News page articles featuring Dr. Turton below), and his appeal, supported by ERPA, for you to air your views on the matter.

Please select Strongly Disagree in Survey Booth #1 below, if you don’t condone the decision by the Minister to appoint a questionable service provider, under questionable circumstances.

Flourishing Regards

The ERPA Team

Survey Booth #1

Vaal Clean-up: Eyebrows Raised over ERWAT Appointment

  • Given the implications to the local residents, who are daily confronted by the reality of direct contact with unprocessed sewage, we believe that this matter should receive urgent attention by a team of qualified specialists that can do the job and be held legally accountable. We therefore believe it's reasonable to expect a service provider to be appointed through a transparent procurement process run consistently with all relevant municipal and provincial procurement procedures.

    Our concern is that Erwat seems to have been appointed in a non transparent manner and we have concerns over their track record as persistent polluters of the Hennops River.

    We therefore believe that the citizens of Emfuleni deserve to be treated with dignity and respect by the appointment of a service provider with a proven track record of competence. Anything short of this reasonable request is an insult to the rights and dignity of the people forced to live with other people's excrement.
  • Strongly disagreeDisagreeNeutralAgreeStrongly agree
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.