Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Wars over water in our future
SA could be a desert in 30 years, writes
Africa, it is important that all responsible citizens conserve this precious resource and use it wisely and sparingly.
We must heed a terse warning by the World Bank that South Africa was rated among the 30 countries in the world that ran the risk of becoming a desert 30 years from now, unless we embarked on a vigorous campaign to save water. Climate change is no doubt wreaking havoc, from one extreme to the next, droughts to floods. However, to cushion the effects of the drought the national government has declared the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape disaster provinces. This will open the financial taps to three provinces to help them deal with the effects of the drought.
Officials of the Department of Water and Sanitation are sitting on the national disaster management forum and the adviser on strategic and emergency projects, Trevor Balzer, was seconded to the Western Cape to work alongside officials in the City of Cape Town.
Balzer, a civil engineering guru and deputy director-general in the department, believes South Africa is characterised by low and variable rainfall, and water security is one of the biggest challenges facing the country in the 21st century.
Balzer predicts water scarcity could get rapidly worse as our supply contracts and demand escalates due to growth, urbanisation, unsustainable use, degradation of wetlands, water losses and a decrease in rainfall due to climate change.
A seasonal climate watch outlook by the South African Weather Service, issued towards the end of 2017, was not very optimistic. Current indications give a high likelihood for a weak La Niña to develop during the early and midsummer months, meaning summer rainfall areas could expect abovenormal rainfall.
The late spring period, however, would receive below-normal rainfall. Warmer temperatures could be expected across the country during late spring. Although abovenormal rainfall is predicted over the south-western parts of the country, it is not expected to be significant and the current drought conditions are expected to deteriorate further during the summer months, Balzer predicted.
Rainfall was its lowest in 95 years and during the height of the drought water reservoir levels were their lowest in a decade. It was likely that reservoirs would take several seasons to recover.
A report presented before the portfolio committee on water and sanitation in October last year stated that of 215 national dams monitored weekly, 32 of them were below 40% and 13 dams had fallen to below 10%.
As a result of additional local authorities declaring states of local disaster, the National Disaster Management Centre conducted a drought assessment in October last year in which they said that a re-prioritisation process had been facilitated to address the effects of drought, and significant contributions had been made by both civil society and the private sector to respond to needs of communities. The Department of Co-operative Governance provided technical support and monitored projects to be implemented in the affected municipalities.
This includes drought “treated as an emergency due to its far-reaching socio-economic impact to the lives of the people and the environment”, the committee said in its written statement.
Other concrete measures that have been put in place include the drilling and equipping of boreholes, borehole repairs, the implementation of water restriction systems, awareness campaigns, and the facilitation of disaster funding through National Treasury by the Department of Co-operative Governance.
Long-term interventions include water harvesting in urban and rural areas, including static tanks; preservation, rehabilitation and protection of ecological infrastructure such as wetlands and estuaries; eradication of illegal water use, and de-silting of dams and canals. Other strategies are the building of dams, water buffering through land management, and the review of non-potable water usage, such as grey water systems.
According to Cogta’s Des van Rooyen, the reports that the interministerial task team has received thus far indicate that the situation is deteriorating with dam levels falling week-on-week.
However, working through the national disaster management committee, the ministerial task team has put in place a series of measures. These included, among others, early warning messages on a regular basis, drilling and equipping of boreholes across all provinces, the application of water restrictions to regulate use of water; the provision of animal feed and fodder, water tankers in areas of severe need, the promotion of the use of drought-resistant cultivars, reduction of water usage by industries and other users such as crop farmers, change of timing of cultivation and irrigation, desalination, water conservation and demand management and reuse optimisation
Themba Khumalo is a content producer in the Department of Water and Sanitation.