Cope with what we have

The claim by the Department of Water and Sanitation that South Africa is ranked among the 30 driest countries in the world doesn’t hold water, writes Africa Check researcher Gopolang Makou

SOUTH Africa’s Department of Water and Sanitation ushered in spring with a warning to citizens of the North West province to use water more sparingly.

To add impact to their message, the department said “South Africa is ranked among the 30 driest countries in the world hence we are urging everyone to take responsibility in water conservation to avoid future water crises”.

North West is but one South African province where dams are running low and citizens are facing water restrictions.

But the claim, repeated by the department in newsletters, media statements and speeches since at least 2004, is incorrect.

Ratau (North-West University) said that “the degree to which countries are dry or the ranking thereof is done in terms of water scarcity or average rainfall per year”.

Average

But South Africa does not rank among the top 30 countries in the world when average rainfall per year is compared.

The Aquastat database of the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations shows that South Africa ranked 39th at last count.

The countries with the least annual rainfall in 2014 were Egypt (51mm), Libya (56mm) and Saudi Arabia (59mm).

Africa Check tried to verify the source of the 495mm figure listed by the Food and Agricultural Organisation for South Africa but was unable to do so at the time of publication. However, it is in line with the average annual rainfall of 509mm between 1981 and 2010 as calculated by the South African Weather Service.

Lecturer in the environmental and geographical science department at the University of Cape Town, Dr Kevin Winter, told Africa Check that while average annual rainfall by country is used as a measure of dryness it is not the sole or best measure.

“Rainfall varies considerably across South Africa and it therefore cannot be the sole indicator on scarcity rankings,” he added.

Other variables like evaporation, the amount of water that reaches and flows through rivers (called “mean annual run-off”), water demand and the demand for water in the form of “how much water is withdrawn every year from rivers, streams, and shallow aquifers for domestic, agricultural and industrial uses” along with the supply of water each country receives.

The supply of water is accounted for in the study by considering a variety of variables including rainfall “as well as modelled hydrological flows, soil moisture and other indicators”, Andrew Maddocks of the institute’s communication team said.

The methodology the institute uses allows for comparison among countries and major river basins, the study’s working paper noted.

Some of the countries tied for the highest possible water stress score included the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Qatar, and the Comoros.

Africa Check is a non-partisan fact-checking organisation: www. africacheck. org; Twitter @AfricaCheck.