Draft legislation aims to change the way South Africans think about water, writes Saliem Fakir
If you have intentions of expanding your swimming pool, or – as they do in Namibia when the heat is on – putting a sprinkler on your roof to cool you down, you’ll have to take into account the attempts by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry to institute a comprehensive national water conservation and demand management strategy.
The department’s draft national strategy framework was released recently for comment and discussion. It includes measures aimed at preventing water loss – in some parts of the country water losses are estimated to be as high as 50% – and reducing demand by influencing usage.
The strategy framework encourages a change in attitude, given that South Africa is a water-scarce country plagued by inefficient use of water in all sectors. This has been perpetuated by a culture that attaches no value to water because it has always been provided at a cost lower than its true value.
The framework document estimates that if demand management measures are not taken into account in Gauteng, for example, over the next 20 years the government will have to fork out R10-billion on waste-water treatment plants and R17-billion on new water augmentation schemes.
The framework aims to establish water use efficiency, water conservation and environmental protection, and equity objectives in all water use sectors.
The mandate for water conservation emanates from both the Water Services Act and the National Water Act. The latter is designed to “ensure that the nation’s water resources are protected, used, developed, conserved, managed and controlled in ways which take into account among other factors: promoting efficient, sustainable and beneficial use of water in the public’s interests”.
Many things, as they say, are easier said than done.
There are four challenges facing proponents of water demand management. The first involves shifting “supply-side dominance”, and ensuring that water conservation and demand management is part of what the framework document calls “integrated resource planning”.
By this is meant weighing various options arising from supply and demand factors, and then deciding which way forward between the two would be the best route to take.
The incorporation of this kind of thinking is a long way from being recognised within the dominant water planning fraternity, who happen to be large dam engineers with little time for the people whom they view to be bunch of “softies” with too much of a conservation mindset.
In many ways the battle to incorporate the principles of water demand management as an intrinsic part of the management of water resources is not over, and neither is it close to being won. At present, out of a total of R270-million allocated to water planning, only R16-million is committed to water conservation and demand management.
The second challenge is a social and psychological one: fundamentally changing the behaviour patterns of water users.
During periods of extreme drought, changes to behaviour have been achieved, albeit with the use of restrictive and punitive measures. No sooner are the droughts over than the bad habits return again.
Consumer habits need to be changed to incorporate an element of awareness prodded along by regulatory oversight. Ways must be found to encourage consumers to regard water to be as precious as life itself.
The third challenge is to target the largest consumers. The agricultural sector reportedly gulps down about 50% of the country’s water resources. Hiding behind emotive arguments about food security, the agricultural sector is resistant to the “new thinking”. This is the sector the strategy framework hopes to engage to find reasonable ways of introducing efficiency.
Successes may be more easily achieved in the urban and industrial sectors. For instance, the Windhoek municipality has reduced consumption between 30% and 50% since demand management programmes were instituted several years ago.
The framework document does not really come to grips with how local government institutions will introduce the measures as part of their water resource management strategies and services.
Stumbling blocks are likely to occur in providing financial incentives for co- operation, beefing up infrastructure and, most important of all, getting people to pay for better services.
And then there is the obstacle of convincing planners and engineers that conservation and demand management is where the future of water lies.
Saliem Fakir is country programme co- ordinator for the IUCN-South Africa (World Conservation Union)