Water Wheel July/August 2019

Abstract

An integration decision of note At the heart of South Africa’s water woes lies our continued inability to utilise the water we already have innovatively, effectively, efficiently and with the right levels of efficacy. This is not in any way discounting the vagaries of climate change and the increased frequency of extreme weather events. The extended El Niño cycles, including the frequent low impact ones, have certainly had an accumulative effect – especially in our ability to timeously recover sufficiently between dry spells. These are real, and represent the new boundary conditions for our water planning, and perhaps this is where we have been wanting. It should, of course, be informing not only water planning, but overall development and economic planning. The promise in the new Cabinet portfolio in the form of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation under the stewardship of Minister Lindiwe Sisulu may hold the key.

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