A local wetlands conservation project of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has warned, ahead of World Environment Day on Thursday that South Africa will not have enough fresh water by 2020.
The Mondi Wetlands Project (MWP), however, praised the government’s new Water Act as ”probably one of the best water acts in the world” and said the legislation could help alleviate the situation.
According to the MWP, the Water Act’s innovation lies in the fact that it revolves around water resource management rather than around getting water to the population through dams.
”Government realises that you have to manage the water resources, need to attend to the goose that laid the golden egg, need to make sure we have enough water going through our dams in the first place.
”In the past the apartheid government concentrated on building dams and hoping they would fill up. Now, with the new government, they are concentrating on the wetlands which feed the dams with water,” said MWP manager David Lindley.
To this end, and in accordance with the World Environment Day’s focus on water for the year 2003, the MWP has been involved in a number of projects to rehabilitate wetlands and secure more water for the people.
South Africa has destroyed almost 50% of its wetlands, which supply water to the millions who do not have access to drinkable water save for that sourced from wetlands.
To reverse this situation, the MWP is currently involved in an initiative with the water affairs and the environmental affairs departments to rehabilitate the wetlands of the Ntiskeni Nature Reserve in the Eastern Cape.
The Ntiskeni wetland and its catchment, situated near Kokstad in the Eastern Cape, was declared a reserve, being one of the few remaining high altitude wetlands in good condition.
It also drains 2,7% of the country’s average annual runoff making it particularly significant for water storage and streamflow regulation.
”According to the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) the Mzimkulu River (fed by Ntsikeni) is one of the few major river systems in the country where supply will outstrip demand in the water stressed future,” said Lindley.
The MWP spent one-and-a-half years surveying the condition of the wetland and drawing up rehabilitation plans for degraded areas, which were put into motion some two years ago.
Repair work since then, such as closing drains and stabilising gully erosion, has cost the MWP, DWAF and the Department and Environmental Affairs and Tourism R3,4-million.
MWP said the work has allowed the previously dried out parts of the wetland to flood again.
”This has benefited water supply, although we haven’t yet quantified it,” said Dr Donovan Kotze of the University of Natal and MWP associate, who is working on a management plan for the reserve to protect biodiversity and water management.
Continental initiatives are also afoot to better manage Africa’s water dwindling water supply;
The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed the year 2003 as the International Year of Fresh Water, and action is being taken on resolutions made at the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in August last year.
The Water Initiative aims to accelerate access to sustainable water supply and sanitation in rural Africa, achieving 80% coverage by 2015 and 100% by 2025.
”This will be done by adopting a programme approach as opposed to single projects and using technologies that are appropriate to local skills and knowledge,” said Omar Kabbaj, the President of Africa Development Bank (ADB), speaking to the banks group’s annual meeting on Wednesday.
He added that supplying rural water and sanitation in Africa needs an
investment of $10-billion dollars.
Kabbaj appealed to the donor community and in particular, to G8 nations ”to support this important initiative”, during his report to the bank’s board of governors, which includes ministers of finance, planning and development from 53 African countries and representatives of 24 non-African shareholders, including the G8 industrialised countries.
The regional initiative on Financing Water infrastructure was launched last year and presented at the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto.
Meanwhile the theme for World Environment Day this year is ”Water: two billion people are dying for it”. ‒ Sapa, Sapa-DPA