Minister outlines drought measures

THE Department of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation has put in place measures to mitigate the ongoing drought.

Yesterday, Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said the measures included drilling and rehabilitation of boreholes, water tanks, rainwater and fog harvesting, as well as the protection and use of springs, cloud seeding and evaporation suppression.

“These are a few we are to put in place immediately,” Sisulu said yesterday. However, she said the best way to mitigate vulnerability to the drought was to save water and preserve the available resources.

“All of us as water users need to evaluate our performance, and adjust our behaviour and mentality towards water.”

The minister also said there was a need to ensure regular reporting on the performance by individual municipalities in the delivery of safe water and reduction of water losses.

“We need to encourage municipalities that have set targets to restrict their water use, and to publicise their results on a monthly basis. This will help make water users more conscious of the supply challenges we face, how we contribute and whether we’re being successful.”

Sisulu said in the long term, they would implement measures to enhance water security against drought.

She added that they would develop and integrate other sources like groundwater and desalination, which was possible with proper equipment and the right place to desalinate from.

Sisulu said South Africa needed to reduce water demand and increase supply for a growing population and economy, to ensure water security by 2030 was in line with National Development Plan.

She said the initiative would be done through public-private initiative projects as well as by reducing average domestic consumption to 175 litres a person a day.

There would also be the use of new technology in the agricultural sector.

“I’m encouraged by the interest of this sector to find not just new ways of doing things, but to be participants in finding lasting solutions to the issues of water scarcity.”

Sisulu said they would continue to be stringent in the applicable law and the prescripts of the water-use licences, as anything less would be a dereliction of duty on their part.

“This will lead to a great social capital, where stakeholders and government are in a sound partnership in every community.”

According to the minister, the department had assessed drought conditions in each province and come up with a number of short, medium and long-term interventions.

In the Eastern Cape, there were dams that were below the 10% level and categorised as critical.

Out of 46 dams, only two are at 100% capacity.

The Free State has 20 dams and one was in a critical state.

“Boreholes were drilled in the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality and 26 of these boreholes were equipped,” Sisulu said.