I would like to thank the Mail & Guardian for the attention it has given to the drought and to respond to issues raised in your editorial of January 16 (“A water-stressed future”).
In particular, I would like to respond to your statement that “what is politically blameworthy is the failure to provide for drought in a water-scarce country … 10 years later nothing has been done to cushion agriculture or shield the rural millions who depend on boreholes and rivers for their domestic needs …”.
This is far from the truth. In 1994, the African National Congress came to power with a manifesto, the Reconstruction and Development Programme, which called for a national water and sanitation programme to provide all households with a clean, safe water supply; the review of the Water Act to ensure water security for all; and a policy of cooperation with our neighbours to create treaties ensuring the fair allocation of water resources
These have all been done.
The water supply and sanitation programme has substantially improved water security by supplying more than nine million rural people. Many systems have been installed in communities, which were badly affected by the 1991/92 drought. This action in itself has given considerable water security to people previously hostage to the vagaries of the weather.
Projects like the Inyaka dam, near Bushbuckridge, have been critical in avoiding a repetition of the calamitous 1991/92 drought, which left hundreds of thousands of people without access to water.
In 1997 the national water policy was approved, followed in 1998 by the National Water Act, which fundamentally changed the framework of water allocation and management. And we have established treaties with our neighbours to manage shared rivers.
South Africa is prone to droughts, which may become more intense in future due to global climate change. The challenge, as your editorial notes, is to put in place the appropriate mechanisms to minimise the impact.
Over many years, mechanisms for predicting and mitigating droughts have been developed and refined by the government in partnership with key water-use sectors. An important step, introduced by the National Water Act, was the development of the first national water-resources strategy, our blueprint for a water-secure future. Published for comment in 2003, it will be launched this year.
Its key objective is to identify and promote measures to reconcile water demand with available supply. It encourages water users to recognise and adapt to natural constraints.
The strategy recognises that droughts often last a number of years, particularly affecting people without access to piped, potable water and reliant on river flows for water supplies.
Droughts prejudice food security by affecting agricultural production, and can affect industry and electricity generation.
Drought management focuses on ensuring that dam water lasts through dry periods. To achieve this, we impose restrictions on water use when our regular reviews indicate we are at risk.
Where restrictions are necessary, water for basic human needs receives priority, followed by strategically important uses such as power generation and key industries. Irrigation, the largest water user with the greatest impact on reserves, is usually restricted first.
Where water users do not respect restrictions, we are forced to take firm action. Where restrictions involve domestic and industrial water supplies, we help municipalities implement them, building on the water conservation programmes established since 1994.
Water stored in dams does not protect rain-fed agriculture. So one focus of the drought working group of the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC), led by the national Department of Agriculture, is to ease the other social and economic impacts of drought.
The NDMC, a product of the post-1994 National Disaster Management Act, reinforces this collective approach. Inter-ministerial committees provide political oversight and leadership to the NDMC at national, provincial and local levels.
The systems for dealing with drought are, therefore, in place and working much better than in 1992. All role-players know what to do and their activities are coordinated.
The system is working in communities whose water supply has been affected by the current drought. Local government, with national financial and technical support, is making the interventions required, such as tankering in water in extreme cases.
We will always have droughts and they will always cause hard- ship. The challenge, which we have addressed, is to prepare for the inevitable and to respond in a structured way to ensure peoples’ basic needs and maintain their livelihoods.
Ronnie Kasrils is the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry