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South
Africa's water shortage -- the future looks dry
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Give and Take Although South Africa is rich in minerals, it is poorly endowed with ground water and lacks a major aquifer. All of the country's major interior rivers have been dammed, and the region receives a paltry amount of rainfall - 19.6 inches a year - just over half the world's average. By comparison, Texas receives an average of 28.1 inches annually. Last fall, the Department of Water Affairs nationalized the nation's water supply. The department pushed for the historic act in order to fulfill its obligations under the country's two-year-old constitution, which considers basic services such as water to be a human right. "Our new water law must ensure that the values of the Constitution are felt by all South Africans in their daily lives," says Asmal. "This will mean not only protecting ecological processes, but also ensuring that allocations to use water are equitably and sustainably distributed." Under the old apartheid regime, farmers owned water outright as part of their land deed. They could draw an unlimited amount of water not only from the ground, but also from rivers abutting their property. Under the new water act, farmers must now apply for three-year licenses subject to renewal by the Department of Water Affairs. Next summer, the department hopes to have a policy in place which specifies how the water will actually be reallocated. Dykema saw the change coming and built a dam on his property two years ago, channeling water from the neighboring Pienaars River into a reservoir on his farm. He uses it to supplement the allotment he receives from a state reservoir near Pretoria, 55 miles south of his farm. "This is the farm's dam. The state did not pay for it," says Dykema. "If I can't have water, I can't farm." As the Department of Water Affairs determines the mechanisms and criteria for the redistribution of water, it has adopted a policy that guaranties every person at least 25 liters (or 6 gallons) of water per day. Although that amount seems minuscule by U.S. standards - the average American consumes more than 80 gallons per day - the department intends it to be simply a starting point in meeting the demands of a previously disenfranchised population. "If you multiply 25 liters of water per person per day by 15 million [the number of people without services], it's an insignificant quantity spread over the water balance in South Africa," said Van Rooyen. "But if you now take that same number of people over a twenty year period, their per capita consumption now raises to 250 liters per day for someone living in a nice house with a small garden, then the picture changes dramatically. That's where the big demand will actually come from." For Mashiloane's village of Tisane, the arrival of tap water means the hope of economic development. After the community completes a sanitation project for its 5,000 residents, it would like to build a resort and nature reserve to encourage tourism and bring jobs to the area. "Water was the priority," says Simon Mashiloane, a native of Tisane and chairperson of the water project. "We were drinking with animals from the same stream. Once you are healthy, then you can think of other projects." |
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