“There is a water crisis today. But the crisis is not about having too little water to satisfy our needs. It is a crisis of managing water so badly that billions of people – and the environment – suffer badly.” – World Water Vision Report
It is ironic that during the recent World Water Week organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), you will find complaints of water leaks in Boksburg.
And then, apparently, these leaks are hardly being attended to, with some of them causing problems now for years.
The problem is not so much the metro’s reaction to these leaks, be it efficient or completely lacking for some or other reason, but rather that the city is plagued by water going to waste.
It is simply a matter of infrastructure failing, coupled with a lack of proper maintenance.
Granted, the recent damage in Limbahout Road in Bardene was apparently not the metro’s fault. Remember the incident? A burst pipeline sent gallons of water rushing into the street and into people’s homes.
It seemed construction workers who were laying down fibre allegedly hit the water pipe by accident and the water levels rose during the night as the drain in the street was blocked.
Apart from the damage caused by the leaks to the roads and property, the reality is that we cannot afford to waste water.
Therefore we ask, is there a real sense of urgency to protect our water supply in the metro, or even protect our water resources throughout the country?
Case in point is the ongoing saga around the Boksburg Lake, which has been dragging for years. The water has still not been remediated.
Or how about the metro only recently and at long last looking into the source of an unnatural bluish-green substance that was spotted flowing into the dam at the intersection of Rondebult and Yaldwyn roads? The source of the pollution was identified as a sewer pump station that had failed.
And so our environment keeps suffering, and as we continue to fail to properly address our water resources crisis, so we tread the path of self-destruction.
There is an increasing awareness that our freshwater resources are limited and need to be protected both in terms of quantity and quality.
The World Water Council has stated that whatever the use of freshwater (agriculture, industry, domestic use), huge saving of water and improvement of water management is possible.
The council also lamented how almost everywhere, water is wasted, and as long as people are not facing water scarcity, they believe access to water is an obvious and natural thing.
One has to therefore agree that water should be recognised as a great priority. One of the main objectives of the World Water Council is, after all, to increase awareness of the water issue.
By the way, if you don’t know it, your taxpayer’s money was used to send a South African delegation to join about 3 000 other attendees from about 100 countries at the World Water Week conference.
Scientists, policy-makers and the private sector met and were given the opportunity to network, exchange ideas and foster new thinking around the most pressing water-related challenges globally.
Water scarcity is a bigger issue than many people realise, just like global warming.
The Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation in South Africa, David Mahlobo, said during a welcoming cocktail event that “every drop of water that is wasted today, somebody, somewhere is desperately looking for it”.
So true, yet in South Africa and in Boksburg we keep wasting water. Go figure.
At the event was the launch of the Water Scarcity Clock, which is an online platform that encourages users to interactively participate in improving their knowledge on this topic.
The clock shows the number of people living with extreme water scarcity worldwide and projects future numbers. Furthermore, users are able to scroll to their own regions to see what the water situation is where they live.
The idea of the clock is to raise awareness and visibility of this massive global crisis.
The water crisis in Cape Town, where residents stared down the barrel of the ‘Day Zero’ gun, has been used as an example of what people are capable of when they are aware and willing to do what it takes to avert a crisis.
It is hoped that the Water Scarcity Clock will raise sufficient awareness, that ultimately its countdown could be stopped, and even reversed.
During the event, Rio Hada of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said sustainable access to clean water is a matter of life and death – it is more than a goal; it is an absolute right.
He reiterated that according to the World Health Organisation, worldwide 3 in 10 people lack access to safe, readily available water at home, and 6 in 10 lack safely managed sanitation.
All of this makes for rather gloomy reading. The question remains: What is truly being done about it?
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