🕐03.05.10 - 09:59 Uhr
News release: South Africa headed towards water security crisis
Note: The executive summary and full report of the round table Water: A
looming crisis? is available on the CDE website: www.cde.org.za
News release from the Centre for Development and Enterprise
03 May 2010
South Africa headed towards water security crisis
On current trends, South Africa is headed for a crisis of water security
and quality that will hamper the countrys social and economic
development.
Sooner than many policy-makers anticipate, emerging water supply
problems will impact on the whole spectrum of South Africas development
challenges.
This is the sobering reality that has emerged in a report released this
week, based on round table discussions convened by Business Leadership
South Africa (BLSA) and the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE).
The aim was to examine the state of the water sector in South Africa,
probe the reasons for its problems, and explore some solutions.
Participants included government officials, representatives of business
and civil society, academics, consultants, and other experts.
"Water security is a critical issue," said Ann Bernstein, executive
director of CDE.
"To improve the countrys outlook, political leadership
at the highest levels must recognise the severity of the current
situation.
"They need to pay urgent attention to putting appropriate policies and
institutional capabilities in place to address threats to water security
and quality."
South Africans may one day have to make do with significantly less water
per capita.
For a country already using almost all its existing water
resources, this would be a dramatic change, with far-reaching
implications for households, businesses, communities and government.
South Africa is in this position for a number of reasons: it is a very
dry country and 98% of its existing water resources are already fully
developed.
Its largest economic centres are not situated near the major
sources of water and acid mine drainage is affecting the quality of
available water.
Added to these issues, the water the country does have
is being managed badly.
A highly ambitious policy agenda has been pursued with scant regard for
the vital role of skills and experience in water management.
The desire
to meet targets of demographic representivity, along with the all too
frequent practice of securing jobs for friends and political allies, has
trumped almost all other priorities in the process of staffing both
existing and newly established entities.
"Water supply has come under growing strain," said Bernstein.
"It has
become clear that the deterioration in water management is largely due
to a failure of government at all levels."
None of the catchment management agencies, established by law in the
late 1990s to sit at the heart of the countrys water resource
management, is functioning.
Some 90 municipalities do not have a single
professional water engineer, and very few have written operating
procedures.
Ninety percent of municipalities cannot meet water standards
for discharge from their waste water treatment plants.
"We are losing up to a third of our water in some areas because of
ageing infrastructure.
In Gauteng, for instance, the infrastructure was
designed 40 or 50 years ago and does not cater for the current
population.
"In order to avoid the worst outcomes of present trends, we need
urgently to focus on factors over which we have some control."
Some of the vital steps identified during the round table include:
* Political leadership is vital
* Institutions responsible for managing water must be
strengthened.
This requires improving structures of governance and
ensuring that all appointees have the skills and experience to manage
the sector.
Political deployments and jobs-for-pals must not be
tolerated
* Maintenance of existing infrastructure must be prioritised,
especially in growing urban areas
* The impact of acid mine drainage needs to be addressed, with
government and industry working together to minimise the impact of this
threat to water quality, especially in Gauteng and increasingly
Mpumalanga
* Waste needs to be minimised, with consumers, businesses and
government playing their part.
As the countrys experience with
electricity has shown, this requires getting prices and incentives right
"Though not yet as visible a crisis as electricity provision, water
supply is already impeding the countrys socio-economic development in
some localities," said Bernstein.
"Water is not the only scarce resource that is running out.
So is time."
~ ENDS ~
Prepared by: FD South Africa
Lynne Goulding 011 214 2402/ 072 653 5070/
On behalf of: The Centre for Development and Enterprise
For further information, download the full report at www.cde.org.za
Lynne Goulding
Account Manager
Johannesburg
FD
1st Floor, Lumley House, Rosebank Office Park
Johannesburg, 2193
T +27 11 214 2402
F +27 11 2142 405
M +27 72 653 5070
www.fd.com
A member of FTI Consulting, Inc.
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