WHAT IS SA DOING TO SAFEGUARD ITS WATER?

WE know that South Africa is a waterscarce country, and that it is among the world’s driest regions.

With this knowledge, are we doing enough to secure our minimal water sources?

We should be spurred into action by the water deficit of approximately 17% projected for 2030. The latest National Biodiversity Assessment showed that 64% of our river ecosystems are threatened and only 13% are adequately protected. South Africa’s strategic water source areas occupy 10% of the country, but contribute 50.4% of river flows. Forty-four percent of the country’s wastewater treatment works are in a critical condition. Each year, R9.9 billion worth of water is lost before reaching consumers.

The Water and Sanitation Master Plan indicates that South Africa needs R33bn per annum, from 2020 to 2030, to achieve water security. I am going to explore this question by highlighting some of the interventions of the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI).

In 2015, the DSI put in place the National Water Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Roadmap to be implemented by the Water Research Commission (WRC). Just before this, the DSI and WRC partnered on the Water Technologies Demonstration Platform (Wader) to bring new water technologies into play. Wader has demonstrated more than 30 innovations for the water sector, including high-tech interventions, such as a virtual reality technology for municipal technicians to undertake maintenance and repairs, without having to wait for technicians from other countries.

In the area of sanitation, technology that reduces the amount of water per flush to 2l has been demonstrated in rural schools. This is significant because it brings dignity to citizens and protects our children from the risk of falling down pit latrines.

Financial support alone does not translate into success. Throwing money at small, medium and micro-enterprises will not increase their sustainability, especially when it comes to young black entrepreneurs in the water sector.

A Transformative Innovation Policy project to understand how to strengthen the enabling environment for water governance was launched in July 2020. This “Living Catchments” project aims to create more resilient, better resourced, and more relational communities not only at the catchment level, but also national level. This is an important aspect of the implementation of the Water RDI Roadmap, as catchments are in most instances our water source areas.

The catchments where this project is being implemented are associated with our sustainable water source areas, namely, the uMzimvubu, Tugela, Berg-Breede and Olifants catchments. There is a great need for increased investment in ecological infrastructure (investing in nature) and to strengthen institutional governance at catchment level. Governance has been identified as a critical element for water management at a global level, and South Africa is poised once again to show the world a best practice model, this time in catchment governance.

If we want a water secure country by 2030, all of us – government, the private sector and society – must look closely at how we use this finite resource. Proper management and governance tied to appropriate technological innovations are needed to move us forward as a country to achieve that target in the coming eight years.