SOUTH AFRICA will be short of water just 20 years from now unless people cut back their usage immediately, Water Affairs Minister Kader Asmal said on Monday. “Our economy is growing. Our climate is becoming drier. Our demand for water is growing too,” said Asmal, launching National Water Week at Cape Town’s Waterfront. “Experts predict that by the year 2020 — when most of you will be in your thirties — the demand for water in our country will be greater than the supply,” he told schoolchildren. Asmal’s department has connected three million households to fresh water supplies over the past five years. He said there are still another eight million people in the country with no direct access to clean water.