‘United effort needed to solve water crisis’
Innovation must go hand-in-hand with maintaining infrastructure, says Zille
THE DROUGHT in the Western Cape has decimated the province’s agricultural sector. Records show that 200 000 tons of wheat were lost during the past harvesting season, while fruit production decreased 15%.
Authorities yesterday warned that revenue for 2015/16 could fall more than R100 million, and it was possible that thousands of seasonal jobs could be lost.
Premier Helen Zille told the Western Cape Water Security Indaba in Worcester that the different spheres of government, business and other stakeholders needed to work together to find solutions to the water crisis.
“This water crisis, similar to the energy crisis we faced in 2008, is an opportunity for South Africa to emerge as the fastest growing water economy in the world,” Zille said. “Our innovation, however, must be coupled with properly maintaining our current bulk infrastructure, repairing it where necessary and investing in new infrastructure for greater capacity.”
Dams in the province are, on average, only about 21% full – effectively 11%, because it is difficult to use the final 10% of the water in a dam.
Zille said the drought would have an impact on the country’s economy, and the Western Cape’s agricultural sector in particular.
“Some 30 000 animals have been sold due to farmers battling to feed their livestock,” Zille said. “Agricultural economists are projecting a R112m decrease in gross value added in the sector, and a possible drop of 1 728 in the number of available seasonal work opportunities.”
Zille proposed several crucial interventions, which would require co-operation across all spheres of government. These included maintaining and replacing bulk water infrastructure, and extending the walls of the Voëlvlei and Clanwilliam dams.
She said millions of litres of good-quality water were lost every year because of leaks and poor infrastructure.
Municipalities did not have the money to upgrade their water infrastructure, Zille said, citing the example of Kannaland, where at least 50% of the water supply was lost because of leaks.
Zille said about R3 billion would be required to address backlogs in municipal water infrastructure in the province.
She said that, because water requirements would exceed the current supply by 2019, extra capacity had to be created in existing dams.
Zille said that regulations governing the use of water for household or business activities should be reviewed.
She said South Africa was one of the few countries in the world where people were able to flush clean, drinkable water down their toilets. “We lose at least 7.5 litres of good-quality water every time we flush the toilet.”
She said consideration should be given to making it compulsory for new developments to have dual water systems that provided for non-potable water to be used for flushing toilets.
“There is no doubt that we are in a race against time, but, with the right policies and implementation, we will emerge with the necessary solutions and prevent disaster going forward,” she said.