Work together to solve national water crisis

This week’s official declaration of the water crisis as a national disaster highlights the magnitude of the water security challenge facing the economy and society at large.

The water crisis requires collaborative and resultsoriented action between the government, business and civil society. It should not be politicised. This is because it is everyone’s problem.

It requires urgent and lasting solutions if the economy is to grow at higher rates of sustainable and inclusive growth.

It is even a global issue. The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks report estimates that about a third of the world’s population live in waterstressed areas and about a billion people have no access to safe drinking water.

Global water demand is projected to exceed supply by 40% by 2030. The crisis is partly a result of a multi-year drought that is linked to climate change. It is exacerbated by poor planning and lack of investment in new and existing infrastructure.

According to Piotr Wolski, a hydrologist with the Climate Systems Analysis Group, climate change is expected to result in lower chances of wet years and higher chances of dry years in the Western Cape as the century progresses. A group of University of Cape Town professors have noted that the city’s water system was not designed to cope with multi-year droughts.

The problem is too big and complex for the government to solve on its own.

Business has the requisite expertise and capabilities, mindset and inclination to find solutions to big and complex problems through innovation and risktaking. However, it would be naïve to assume that it can solve the crisis on its own. Civil society also can’t.

Effective, focused and targeted collaboration is required to unlock lasting solutions to the crisis.

What, then, must be done to solve the crisis in Cape Town and elsewhere in South Africa?

First, business must take an active role in efforts to find lasting solutions. It is in business’s own interest to have water security.

Second, there is a sense of urgency for smart policies that incentivise investment in smart short-, medium- and long-term solutions. South Africa’s renewable energy independent power producer programme provides a good reference point on the art of the possible.

Third, we need creative and robust financing and delivery mechanisms supported and underpinned by an enabling world-class ecosystem.

Fourth, the role of new technologies needs to be encouraged. This must be an area of opportunity not just for desalination, but for other inventions in areas such as airto-water technologies.

South Africa must position itself at the forefront of finding workable and sustainable local solutions to global problems such as the global water crisis by leveraging our world-class business expertise and ability to work with our government and civil society towards a common national objective.

The problem is too big for the government to solve on its own