by Terri Fortein

CAPE TOWN, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- A national water-saving campaign is gaining momentum as a water crisis looms in South Africa.

The drought conditions experienced by South Africa is the worst in many decades, Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said as she launched the campaign recently.

It has to be a collaborative effort if South Africa is to achieve its economic goals and provide water for all its citizens, Sisulu said.

"We can see the very negative impact of drought conditions on the country's economy, especially on the agricultural sector, affecting food security and exports," said the minister.

It is clear that no economy can thrive without good, toxic-free, reliable and secure water services, she said.

"It is for this reason we have always maintained that water should be everyone's business," Sisulu noted.

South Africa is a water scarce country where the annual rainfall is lower than the global average. The country, however, has higher water consumption per capita than world average.

According to the Ministry of Water and Sanitation, challenges relating to the provision of water services include insufficient water infrastructure maintenance and investment, recurrent droughts driven by climatic variation, inequities in access to water and sanitation, deteriorating water quality, lack of skilled water engineers, scientists, hydrologists, geo-hydrologists and resource economists, and increasing water demand.

"In efforts to develop South Africa, the government has consistently called for collaboration from all sectors to put hands on the deck," ministry spokesperson Sputnik Ratau told Xinhua.

All efforts should be brought on board and everyone has a role to play, particularly the business community, Ratau said.

In this case, the Ministry of Water and Sanitation is working with all stakeholders to ensure investment in water infrastructure that will assure water security for all, said Ratau.

Speaking of her ministry's mandate, Minister Sisulu said, "We must guarantee short term and very long term availability of water and to assure investors that South Africa is open for business."

"We also have to provide the same guarantee for our local businesses, big and small, and our farmers," Sisulu said.

It is absolutely critical for South Africa to resolve issues relating to water security if South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is to advance his agenda to grow the economy, water experts say.

Eric Bruggeman, CEO of the South African Capital Equipment Export Council (SACEEC), said that "unless urgent action is taken, South Africa's looming water crisis will prove far more devastating than the power crisis, potentially crippling the economy."

According to Bruggeman, most of South Africa's dams, water treatment facilities and wastewater systems are over 30 years old, with some as old as 100 years.

Bruggeman said no adequate maintenance has been done in the past 20 years and the population has virtually doubled since the installation of the current infrastructure which cannot cope with demand.

"As an arid country, we have to provide more dams in catchment areas and maximize the water we have.

"To address the situation, an incredible amount of work must be done on maintenance, storage capacity must be upgraded and increased, new dams must be built and ageing pipes must be re-laid. However, in the face of a lack of resources, the public sector needs to be looking to the private sector for assistance,"Bruggeman said.

Nhlanhla Mnisi, a researcher with the Helen Suzman Foundation, said decisive action is required to protect South Africa's scarce water resources.

"Action is essential to ensure the development of our economy and the realization of the constitutional right of all South Africans to sufficient food and water," she said.

Mnisi is of the view that water scarcity in South Africa is, to a large extent, attributable to physical causes, exacerbated by the impact of global climate change, climate variability and increasing demand on available water resources.

She said the root causes are not exclusively limited to physical conditions.

"The observed water scarcity in some parts of the country can be explained by uneven investment in water infrastructure, where geospatial disparities are obvious," said Mnisi.

Rural communities, small towns and rural provinces remain inadequately serviced, subjecting these areas to the effects of both observed national physical water scarcity and localized economic water scarcity, Mnisi added.

The government recently unveiled its National Water and Sanitation Master Plan (NWSMP) to guide investment in the water sector and facilitate development planning for water resources and the delivery of water and sanitation services.

The plan, designed to address its water security challenges for the coming years leading to 2030 and beyond, envisages immediate, short-term and future-thinking action to ensure that South Africa stabilize its struggling water sector so as to enable it to provide water to all while preserving scarce water resources.

The plan details critical priorities to be addressed by the water sector. Priorities are clustered into two sections, namely Water and Sanitation Management and Enabling Environment. It will cost about 900 billion rand (about 62 billion U.S. dollars) over the next 10 years to implement.

Under the plan, the government will invest in a number of water resource infrastructure projects such as the phase-two Lesotho Highlands Water Project, the De Hoop Dam in Limpopo Province and Clan William Dam in Western Cape Province.

In addition, monitoring systems, enabling policies, working maintenance logistics as well as well-coordinated institutional arrangements will be used to mitigate drought and its effects.

To balance requirements and supply, South Africans are encouraged to reduce water demand, as the population keeps growing.

This will be done by encouraging behavioral change and ensuring that the public participates in government programs to reduce use and preserve water.

"We must consider our use with our mind on the sustainability of our resources for our future generations. Our children and their children are depended on this generation to do right, use water sparingly and to be water wise, to assure and ensure water security for the future," Sisulu said. Enditem

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