CEO Column and news from the SA water sector September 2013

Abstract

Fluid thoughts Fluid Thoughts Fluid Thoughts WRC CEO, Dhesigen Naidoo Our recent history has been dominated by a national water dialogue of scarcity, pollution, quality problems and social unrest associated with last mile service delivery. South Africa’s water future is determined by the three faces of the current Malthusian challenge, namely, a growing population, an improving quality of life that is linked with increasing personal water budgets, and a policy determination that relies on water intensive economic growth sectors. This seems to imply that our water scarcity is highly probable. I f we add to this mix the vagaries of climate change and extreme weather events, the scarcity is increasingly assured. The facts as we have them is that using our current water behaviour baseline, tomorrow’s South Africa will have less water per capita for personal use and less water per activity for productive use. Although this analysis is accurate, its narrative is disempowering. A nother perspective can be derived from a different narrative with the same facts.

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