Water Wheel May/June 2025: Water Resource Management

Abstract

Rethinking water management in a changing climate Feature It is ironic that water, the most essential resource for life, is also the medium through which an increasingly hostile climate is presenting itself; water brings life but also threatens it in anger. Water managers have long been aware of this dual nature of water, but as climate change gains momentum, the stark impact of freshwater scarcity and extreme weather events running in parallel is compelling a rethink on how water should be managed. Article by Dawid Bosman, Senior Manager: Strategic Advisory at the Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority. Climate change has arrived, like an unwelcome guest in our home, and will bring ever more trauma and disruption in the years and decades to come. Early in 2024, and again in 2025, news came that the global average temperature of the prior year had increased by more than 1.5°C, relative to the preindustrial level. This was disturbing news; as recent as 2021, the projection was that this threshold would only be breached by 2040. And yet, here we are.

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