If you live in Cape Town in 2017, you would’ve really felt the effects of the water crisis more than alot of other South Africans. Here are some of the things we have learned this year from the water crisis:
When it rains it doesn’t necessarily pour
Earlier this year Capetonians experienced one of the most severe storms in a long time. Although a lot of people saw this as a sign of hope, the storm merely destroyed property, displaced people, flooded cars and ended up only raising the dam levels by a mere two percent. There is a perception that one big storm can help solve years of drought but this is not always the case as we have seen in Cape Town.
South Africa is at a critical point in water management
Cape Town is not the only place experiencing less rain and lower dam levels. The Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and other provinces have also seen less rain this year. Things are by no means “back to normal”. The Cape Town water crisis has provided the necessary jolt to action when it comes to ensuring water and sanitation are properly managed around the country.
People also need to play a part in saving water
In certain parts of the world, there are many communities who have learned to live for decades with minimal water usage due to a drought. It is predicted that South Africa’s water supply, if managed the same way today, will run out by 2050. This means that it is up to every single individual to play their role in ensuring that water is not wasted.
We have to embrace new water technologies
GrahamTek, a global desalination and water purification company based near Cape Town, unveiled a locally designed and assembled modular sea water desalination plant for deployment in Saudi Arabia this year. This is further proof that we have capacity to build and create new mechanisms for water production. Each of the modular plants GrahamTek has built, have the capacity to produce three million litres of potable water from sea water per day and can be upscaled to virtually any size.
Municipal debt could really hurt our water supply and progression
This year, the Department of Water and Sanitation restricted water supply at 30 municipalities across the country because they collectively owed R10 billion. This type of negligence in municipalities will be our demise in terms of water supply because the funds would not be able to be funneled into important water projects causing major delays in progression.
— Water&SanitationRSA (@DWS_RSA) December 6, 2017
Government needs to react faster to a water crisis
Water and Sanitation Master Plan pic.twitter.com/rD0yU8p5Nm
— Water&SanitationRSA (@DWS_RSA) October 31, 2017
One of the major problems in South Africa’s governmental structures is a lack of urgency when dealing with a crisis. This year we saw more initiatives being implemented by government that should’ve been done many years ago. Going forward, every citizen needs to put pressure on government to respond to the water problems different communities are experiencing. Overall, there needs to be far more accountability and efficiency within those structures but this is why it will be interesting to see how the Water and Sanitation Disaster plan is implemented.
For a more in depth rainfall update, visit WeatherSA or click here. For more information on the water storage levels across the country, visit the DWS site. For a comprehensive drought status report from the Department of Water and Sanitation, click here.
