Industrialisation of water and sanitation key to leveraging drought crisis
I WRITE this from the 2017 International Water Association in Argentina, where 2 000 delegates from 30 countries have gathered.
There is consensus that globally, water security is declining. This is backed up by barometers such as the Global Risk Register compiled annually by the World Economic Forum. Water crisis has consistently been one of the top five risks to the global economy in recent times.
This will come as no surprise to South Africans as we have bellycrawled under the barbed wire that was the worst El Niño event in more than 20 years.
Our recovery has been at best sluggish, on the back of miserly post-drought rainfall patterns – so much so that at least one major metropolitan area, the City of Cape Town, has designated a Day Zero: the dreaded signal for extreme water rationing as the city reaches its highest level of water stress.
While Cape Town represents an extreme, many South African cities and towns are one poor rainfall season away from this scenario.
Is this the New Normal? There is a sufficiency of research, including an examination of the past 100 years of rainfall data, to support the theory that southern Africa’s foreseeable future will be characterised by lower-than-average precipitation, with longer drought episodes.
Even more worrying is the change in the rainfall modality to shorter, more intense episodes prone to flooding events.
This not only heralds the continued water availability conundrum, but is also a severe threat to the existing infrastructure platforms, like roads. Our transport infrastructure was designed for a very different rainfall pattern within a season.
Potholes are not only a function of poor maintenance, but also of roads designed to manage and tolerate different, more moderate, rainfall episodes. Two critical questions emerge: First, are we trying to fix a 21st century problem with 20th century technology and 19th century operating rules?
We continue to obsess about surface freshwater solutions when we have available to us some of the best technologies to treat wastewater and saline waters (either seawater or brackish and polluted inland sources) as “new”water sources – or, as the Singaporeans call them – “new taps”.
We have in South Africa remarkable science that enables safe, hygienic sanitation using less than half a litre of water per flush, less than a twentieth of the current standard. This enables up to a 30% water saving for every household in the country.
The second question beckons: when are we going to act decisively? This is the WeiJi moment. We are explicitly clear regarding the Wei, or danger associated with this New Normal.
We need to spend more effort on the strategy to realise the Ji, or opportunity, associated with crisis. We have the possibility of a turning point in our water fortunes.
We have a chance to completely redefine the water management paradigm, and in a manner that fundamentally and simultaneously improves energy and food security as well, as we engage the water– energy–food nexus.
We have the chance to radically improve our trade balance stimulated by a switch in our technology balance of payments.
This can be achieved by the industrialisation of water and sanitation in South Africa as envisioned in the 2017 Industrial Policy Action Plan.
We are well positioned to develop a significant water private sector that has the potential to set up a manufacturing base and supply chain producing goods and services to empower water and sanitation services in the New Normal for the global market – solutions that can enable a 100% assurance of supply of quality water and universal dignified sanitation in a manner that creates wealth and sustainable livelihoods and enhances inclusive economic growth.
Dhesigen Naidoo is chief executve of the Water Research Commission and a member of the National Council on Innovation. He writes in his personal capacity.