A leadership crisis in the management of water

WE do not have a water crisis, what we have is a leadership crisis.

Water evaporates from the sea and falls on land as rain. Then we harvest it in catchment areas by means of dams.

But we ignore the biggest natural dam – the sea.

We ignore the biggest source of natural energy – the sun.

If we combine the two, we have an infinite supply of clean water. But to desalinate water, we need capital.

So, we do not have a shortage of water, what we have is a shortage of capital. We solve a capital shortage by growing our economy and allowing continuous portfolio adjustment – by reallocating consumption to ensure we maximise total utility.

But public policy should dictate that the government does not make this decision for us.

This is how civilisation has progressed over the past 5 000 years – by choice, competition and innovation.

Let the hairdresser, for example, decide for herself if she wishes to wait in a queue for hours and carry around backbreaking cans of cheap water or if she prefers to buy more expensive desalinated water directly from the municipal network.

Government apparatchiks should not make that decision for her or for us.

Similarly, people have the choice to pay the toll for access through the shorter Du Toit’s Kloof tunnel route or take the free longer route through the pass.

The ANC government has decided to declare the drought a national disaster.

This party is a huge national disaster itself, having bankrupted all government institutions, is totally dysfunctional, and consists of a motley bunch of crooks, incompetents, hangers-on, snoozers and losers.

For example, Agriculture Minister Senzeni Zokwana says we need to protect our farmers to ensure food security and then contradicts himself when he says he may decide to nationalise farm dams.

Who is the best person to look after the dam, the farmer or the government?

And how will nationalisation bring us more water or enhance food security?

The current El Nino has dissipated and we may soon have plenty of rain, but our population is exploding and El Nino is cyclical. We may have a close shave this time, but we will definitely not be lucky next time round.

It’s up to our spineless leaders to forget about their job security, to overcome vested interests and make the bold decisions necessary to engineer a paradigm shift.