Haunting images of the drought were shown at the Mail & Guardian and ActionAid South Africa Critical Thinking Forum on water efficiency. The take-home message was that South Africa is a water-scarce country with selective amnesia when it comes to its predictable climate patterns, and that there is a desperate need to address the lack of water management.
The panel discussion, moderated by the Mail & Guardian’s environmental reporter, Sipho Kings, was held at the Gordon Institute of Business Science on April 5. Said Kings: “The outcome was the need to push government to be better and for business and ourselves to be agents of change.”
The event coincided with the release of the ActionAid South Africa report, Running on Empty: What Business, Government and Citizens Must Do to Confront South Africa’s Water Crisis. This report, written by Changing Markets based on contributions by Pegasus Institute, Dr Anthony Turton, Dr Anja du Plessis, Jo Walker and Stefanie Swanepoel, says that South Africa, one of the driest countries in the world, is “on the cusp of a major water crisis that poses a serious and immediate risk to the economy and to social stability”.
“We are in a bad drought, but South Africa’s water crisis did not start in 2015,” said Emily Craven, head of programmes, ActionAid South Africa. “This country has become increasingly water-scarce over the years and water instability cannot be blamed on El Niño [alone].”
According to Craven, water quality and availability form the bedrock of a plethora of socioeconomic phenomena, and the lack thereof may lead to instability, violence and other infrastructural challenges. “Drought highlights and exacerbates multiple intersections. Drought is part of the water shortage problem, but not the defining factor.
“There is a privileged water system in this country, particularly in areas where canal systems are used. At the top of the canal, people exceed their water quotas and by the time it reaches the bottom, there is no water and villages have to resort to getting what they can from rivers and from water trucks — or pay to have their water cans transported and filled.”
Questioning everything
Describing the knock-on consequences of this system, Craven said women who walk over 10km to fetch water are targets for sexual violence. “Rapists know where these women have to go to line up for water and use this to prey on them.” Another consequence is in schools without water. Young women who are menstruating miss classes for hygiene reasons, placing more strain on an already struggling education system.
“It is wrong to assume the solution is rain, or to jump to solutions like privatising,” said Craven. “We need to question everything. There are no sacred cows. Privatising is not at all what we believe to be the way to go — it is government’s responsibility to provide clean, safe water, with industry helping to provide the solutions.
“We also need to look at mining and power stations, which use immense amounts of water in an unsustainable manner.
“There is the tendency of government to focus on consumer use, urging people to turn off taps and share the shower with someone. Yes, the consumer has a responsibility, but business and industry are being seen as too important to question their usage. There are some serious issues around illegal, unlicensed mines — without water licences — simply drawing water from local dams.”
Lip service
Kumi Naidoo, director of the African Civil Society Centre and the first leader of Greenpeace in the southern hemisphere, said: “The challenge worldwide is that most political and business leaders have a bad case of cognitive dissonance.
“All we largely get is pretty timid lip service to problems and policymakers are simply passing on the problems.
“The business community must ask itself if it is ready to act in its own self-interest. Water, like fuel, drives the economy. It is not about asking for charity. It is looking at the facts and recognising that many business fundamentals are impacted by a problem that has been coming for a long time.
“Climate change and the water crisis can turn into opportunities, such as accelerating advances in water desalination. Water will become more expensive as it becomes scarcer. Business needs to start aiming services across the chain, from pollution control to innovating water-saving technologies.
“Government must also recognise that it has crazy policies on the table. To be thinking about spending $1-trillion on nuclear power is insane, yet South Africa’s cabinet ministers have made the decision to go nuclear, the main benefit of which will go to the uranium company owned by the Guptas and Jacob Zuma’s son,” said Kumi Naidoo.
“It has been 20 years and there is no time for politeness. We have an obligation to stand up and speak out and Zuma must take the R200-millon already spent back and use this to educate people about solar, water, wind and other technologies. We can make a difference about how we use and take water and manage our natural resources. There is also money to be made in waste — including what comes out of us.
“My hope is that young people are seeing the world in a different way to those of us contaminated by bad experience, driving change and saying the future belongs to them.”
Amazing amnesia
“While there is much to be said, there is [also] much to be acknowledged,” said Dhesigen Naidoo, chief executive of the Water Research Commission. “Discussions around water go back to the sixties.
Dhesigen Naidoo, chief executive of the Water Research Commission (Photo: Paul Botes)
“After the drought El Niño produces, we have this amazing amnesia and then get surprised all over again after about seven good years of wet weather.
“The difference now is that we are at the front end of the reality of climate change. We cannot look at the same climate cycles, as it is more likely that the next one will be different.”
Dhesigen Naidoo stressed that the number one risk to the global economy is the global water crisis and water as a socioeconomic driver. He said the problem is not just local, but pricing inappropriateness and disparities in quantities are a worldwide issue.
“This is an issue that needs to be solved globally and in conjunction with global partners. In 2016, we have the solutions. Problems in themselves present opportunities.”
Paul Gilding, co-founder of Changing Markets and fellow of the Cambridge University’s Sustainable Leadership Institute, pulled no punches about having to overcome apathy: “We wait and wait until there is crisis and only when we are left with no choice but to change do we take action. South Africa is advanced in the process, but still acutely threatened by water security. This is not a supply or social issue, but has the capacity to collapse the economy.”
Collapses in society
Gilding cited Syria as a prime example of water being at the base of socioeconomic and security problems, causing the conflict that “threatens to pull down the European Union. It is vital that we recognise at local level the scale of the problem and then decide how to respond”.
He also stressed the need to recognise the importance of the role business has to play in driving the change. When collapses occur, responses do not come from government; as with climate change, business has to argue for change.
“Unless we put pressure on the business community to act, dragging them if we have to to the table, their answer will always be ‘yes, someone must do something. Not us, but government.’ My argument is that business needs to act with products and sufficient muscle upon government, providing the ability to change. It needs to act early to avert crisis and use its enormous capital, business influence and ingenuity.”
Sputnik Ratau, spokesperson for the department of water and sanitation, said: “This is a developing country, experiencing water poverty, and while the RDP standards present the ideal that water should be available 200m from homesteads, there are still people who have to travel [some distance] to rivers and elsewhere.
“Additionally, there are some people with access to water that need government review. There is the issue of engaging with people with water licences and reviewing these licences, checking where they are exceeding usage and compliance monitoring. If people cannot keep to prescripts and water pollution standards and where there is less flow and more cost to clean, then comes the issue of water costs.
“Government, business and communities have a common understanding of the value of water and farmers and business can take steps to conserve for current and future generations,” said Ratau.
“We also have to factor in cross-border relations. We share seven rivers with our neighbours and there are protocols to guide usage. When there is drought, there is not enough water to share with our neighbours, but we must be able to provide for those who are water poor.”