By Felicity Duncan
Eskom is a disaster – no one is denying that. But the relentless focus on SA’s unstable electricity supply risks distracting the nation from other, perhaps even more pressing problems.
I’m thinking here particularly about water. SA has a serious, two-fold water crisis. First, as an arid country that is increasingly prone to droughts, South Africa is facing the possibility that it will not have enough potable water to meets its needs. In February, the Department of Water and Sanitation said that SA faces a deficit of 3,000 billion litres of water by 2030. That’s a lot.
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And this shortage is inextricably linked to and exacerbated by the second half of the water crisis: the country’s rapidly decaying ability to process wastewater.
As far back as 2010, the county’s wastewater infrastructure was in trouble, with only 45% of wastewater processing systems performing within acceptable limits. The situation has not improved since then. Indeed, it has worsened – raw sewerage is pouring into the Vaal river as wastewater treatment plants collapse from lack of maintenance
At the same time, SA’s miners and manufacturers have been pumping pollutants into the country’s river systems as fast as they can, encouraged by the government’s failure to monitor pollution and enforce standards. It’s a perfect, disgusting storm – a combination of high levels of pollution and decaying infrastructure that reduces SA’s ability to remove pollutants from the water supply.
Bottom line: South Africa’s rivers and dams are drying up as rainfall declines, the water that does remain is awash in sewerage, heavy metals, and other contaminants that pose a serious risk to human health, and SA’s poorly maintained infrastructure is unequal to the task of cleaning it up.
This is a serious and immediate risk to the wellbeing of South Africans. While a small proportion of the country can afford to buy bottled water (itself no guarantee of purity in these troubled times), the vast majority of the country relies on what comes out the tap. And that is increasingly risky – there’s the risk that what comes out is dangerous to consume, and the risk of nothing coming out at all.
The perils of this situation were highlighted by events in Cape Town, which faced a devastating water crisis that had its origins in low rainfall and inadequately maintained and updated water infrastructure. The city survived, but it holds some important lessons for just how serious a water supply failure can be.
Indeed, in many ways, a water crisis is more serious than an electricity crisis. After all, humans can survive without electricity easily enough – we did it for thousands of years. But without safe drinking water, people are in real trouble.
Yet, while the government seems to be ready and willing to take on billions in debt to get Eskom up and running, less has been said about fixing the water crisis. The government has deployed the army to fix up the problems with the Vaal, but progress has been slow and expensive.
Part of this is because much of the responsibility for the waterworks is devolved to municipalities and local government. Often, these institutions lack the skills and knowledge to manage infrastructure. This problem is made worse by rapid population growth – part of the reason the Vaal is such an issue is that the population of Gauteng has exploded in the last couple of decades. Planning for that type of growth is difficult for the best-run cities.
So, what is to be done? Well, there is plenty that every individual can do. For a start, be conscious of your water use. This is a dry country, and you should think about that before lavishing water on your orchid garden. As Cape Town showed, there’s plenty of scope for us all to cut way down on our water use.
Another helpful step is to inform yourself about the quality of your local water supply. Contact the municipality, seek out reports, and let your local government know that you are concerned. Active citizens are an important part of a working democracy, and good governance is the only way we can ensure the safety of our water supply.
If you are a shareholder or employee of any of the miners or manufacturers accused of polluting – Sasol and Arcelor Mittal, for example – ask questions about what the company is doing to fix the water problems it helped to cause.
Above all, make a noise. If you are a middle-class person, you have more political clout than you realise. Use your power for good.
