It is estimated that 1.1 billion people globally rely on unsafe drinking water sources and that as much as 80 percent of waste water is being discharged untreated in developing countries.

A report found that if no action was taken, projected population and economic growth would lead to global water demand that was 40 percent in excess of current supply by the year 2030. – Sapa

The proposals, details of which are contained in a document tabled at a meeting of Parliament’s water affairs portfolio committee on Tuesday, appear to fly in the face of an announcement made by Water Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica last month.

“I want to allay the fears of South Africans that there is not in the near future a possibility of a [tariff] hike. It’s not in the pipeline,” she told a media briefing at Parliament on April 13.  Questioned about this later on Tuesday, the department’s media liaison director, Linda Page, said that there was no contradiction.

“You will remember that the minister was responding to a question on whether there are likely to be tariff increases linked to funding for infrastructure and thus potential increases in the price of raw water.  “The increases that the water boards are proposing… are the normal annual increases linked to the CPIX because they operate on a cost recovery basis,”

These range from 6,2% for Umgeni Water (from R3,24 a kilolitre to R3,47), to 43% in the case of Namakwa (from R6,37 to R9,11).

Among the water boards supplying the larger metropolitan areas, Rand Water is calling for a 14,1% increase (from R3,48 a kilolitre to R3,97) and Amatola for between an eight and 8,8 percent increase.  Bushbuckridge Water is proposing a 12,46% increase.

by Sapa.

This means sewage is not being adequately treated in most of SA’s 850 treatment works. Insufficiently treated water is discharged into local river systems, affecting downstream users such as farmers and rural communities, and degrading ecosystems.

But if sewage treatment works are not improved, SA could in time lose more of its water resources, putting more strain on agriculture. Fresh water is already in tight supply, with the Eastern Cape suffering a severe drought.

Half of municipalities did not take part in the report which was compiled from 2008 to last year.

Business Day said the report was meant to be released in November but had been kept under wraps.

It was expected to be made public yesterday.

Report by Business Day

Davis, who addressed the Wits Business School, says that, “in the not too distant future, under-investment in water infrastructure risks pitting the mining industry against its own communities, as water scarcity grows.

“It doesn’t have to be this way and value can be captured from the ongoing super-cycle,” Davis adds.

While mining companies can operate much of their own infrastructure, including power and rail transport, it will be far more difficult for them to operate water infrastructure, he says.

Between 2001 and 2008 – “the first phase of the super-cycle” – the Chilean mining industry’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) grew by a compound rate of 12% a year in real terms.

By contrast, the South African mining sector’s gross domestic product (GDP), over the same boom period, shrunk by 1%, in spite of the demand for coal, ferrochrome and platinum, all in abundance in South Africa.

“If, instead of shrinking, South Africa’s mining industry had achieved an average growth rate of 5% a year during the period, 45 000 additional jobs would have been created in the mining sector and R60-billion would have been added to GDP by the mining sector,” Davis says.

If you are passing by villages like Sri Kolayat, Khajuwala, Pugal or Bajju near Bikaner, security guards protecting tanks or even ponds are a common sight. These are places where water is scarce and theft rampant.

Shyam Lal, from Khajuwala, says the guards even keep animals away from quenching their thirst in the local pond. “There are 8,000 villagers and they depend on this water body. So, we have hired four security guards to protect the pond round the clock. And the pond is also drying. It hasn’t rained here properly for nearly five years.”

Guards also ensure that no family gets more than its share. Each family’s quota is decided based on the number of members in the household.

“Often, villagers take away water using pipes and electric motors. But we keep check round the clock and keep outsiders and stray animals away from the water tanks,” said a guard.

A senior police official told TOI that cases of water theft for the purpose of irrigation was higher compared to stealing of drinking water. He claimed the police are also doing their best to keep water thieves at bay but the villagers prefer to let private guards do the protecting. Even if it means pooling in hard-earned money to pay for it.

Photograph by: JORGE SILVA

Opposition MPs warned of a crisis in the state of South Africa’s water affairs, pinning the blame for it on mismanagement.

Your department has let South Africa down, and seriously so,” Democratic Alliance MP Annette Lovemore told Water Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica.

Lovemore, speaking during debate on the water affairs budget vote in the National Assembly, called on the minister to show “vital, critical and urgent leadership to address the current shocking level of mismanagement of our water resources”.

Ground and surface water quality in South Africa was deteriorating fast, and people had died after drinking polluted water, she said.

“We are sitting on a time bomb. This is a water-scarce country with a growing population and outdated infrastructure designed to serve a small portion of citizens who live in the privileged areas.”

Holomisa said government had failed in the past 15 years to bring the infrastructure in underprivileged areas on a par with privileged areas.

• Collect grey water from your bath,sinks and laundry and use these for irrigating your garden. You can invest in professionally installed and fully automated grey water recycling system for this purpose.

• Schedule your garden irrigation by watering less frequently, but for longer periods of time – this way, the water will sink deeper into the ground, encouraging a deeper root system and stronger plants.

• Plant indigenous and water-wise plants in your garden – try avoiding planting plants that require a lot of water. Lawns are especially bad culprits, requiring up to four times more water than other plants.  Try and reduce the amount of lawn in your garden with paving and creating more flower beds.

• Make sure your irrigation system is not leaking and spraying where the water is needed and not on the road or pathways.

• Dont let your pool backwash water go to waste, you can use a Water Rhapsody Pool Backwash system to clean the water and send it straight back to your pool.

• Cut down the amount of water flushed down the toilet pan. Toilets use about 30% of the total water used in a household. An old-style single flush toilet can use up to 13 litres of water in one flush. Install a Water Rhapsody Multiflush and control exactly how much water you need to flush the pan.  This could save you a whopping 7,300 litres of water each year.  The Mulitflush device will pay for itself within a couple of weeks!

• Make a point of checking to see if there are any leaks in the toilets or taps throughout your house. You can check if your toilet is leaking by adding a few drops of food dye to your cistern – if the colour seeps into the bowl, you have a leak. A toilet leak or a dripping tap can both waste up to 30 litres of water an hour, and this adds up to 10,000 litres every year. Get them fixed – the cost you will save on water over a 12-month period will more often than not cover the plumber’s bill.

• Only use your dishwasher or washing machine when they are fully loaded.

• Don’t wash and rinse your dishes under running water – rather fill a sink with soapy water, wash them, and then rinse them in a sink of fresh water.

• Use two buckets instead of the hosepipe when washing your car, this can save up to 300 litres of water each time.

Ben Polley is convinced.

The home builder installed a grey water system last year in the Manitoba Street heritage home he and wife Jen Woodside were renovating.

“Since we’ve installed it we have required zero city water for toilet flushing,” Polley said.

“Grey water” is used water leaving sinks, bathtubs and washing machines. Such water is collected, disinfected and stored in tanks, and then used instead of clean water to flush toilets.

“Most people would agree we don’t need potable water for toilet flushing,” Galliher said, adding reusing grey water can reduce water consumption by 30 per cent, and save homeowners accordingly on their water bill.

The funding will be used to support field testing, which will be done largely by University of Guelph engineering students. Researchers will monitor water quality and survey homeowners to track their satisfaction with the systems, as well as completing cost analyses and examining potential energy savings.

The city’s goal, depending on the study results, would be to install 200 residential grey water reuse systems by 2019.

Polley said he has been “intentionally negligent” with the system at his house to simulate the worst-case scenario of not performing regular maintenance on the system, which mostly involves cleaning out the filter.

He said when the system is not maintained, effluent is simply bypassed into the regular wastewater system “so it’s sort of foolproof. The worst case is you simply don’t realize the benefit from having it.”

Polley said there are a lot of eyes on Guelph to see if the program works, and rightly so.

“This could decrease home water use by 30 per cent if they are mandated to be installed in new homes and retrofitted into existing homes,” Polley said. “There’s no reason we shouldn’t all be using grey water.”

Hydro-geologist Fatchy Muhammad said rainwater was a valuable resource that should be collected as much as possible on the ground instead of being directly drained away.

“Rainwater has good mineral content, which should not just be washed to sea. If we provide water absorption, it will become groundwater and help manage floods at the same time,” he said.

Fatchy said his aim was to have balanced usage of groundwater and tap water.

When households or companies use groundwater, he said, they should first examine the availability of groundwater on their land. When the groundwater resource is in surplus, they can choose to use it or tap water instead.

“If they use groundwater, they should conserve rainwater by digging biopore infiltration holes or wells,” he said, adding that this would lead to balanced usage.

When asked about the groundwater tax applied to corporations, he said companies should pay based on the disparity between the groundwater they use and the rainwater they collect.

“Companies can use meters to calculate the amount of water they use. They can also calculate the amount of rainwater they absorb.”

Fatchy said people from middle- to upper-income groups had an obligation to dig biopores, while companies should dig wells. The city, he said, should construct man-made lakes for water absorption

“We already have a regulation stipulating that companies dig wells for rainwater absorption. The city has to supervise and enforce it.”

He said unchecked development led to green spaces like forests being turned into buildings, in turn changing hydrological functions, which led to floods in the rainy season.

The city, he said, should focus on restoring the land’s absorption function if the officials want sustainable water management.

Marco Kusumawijaya, from urban community rujak.org, expressed a different opinion, saying the city’s current method of draining away rainwater into including canals and rivers was the best short-term solution for flood mitigation.

He said rainwater absorption would be a better long-term solution for a better environment.

He said the city did not have a zero runoff law like Santa Monica, California, which limits surface water runoff from houses and streets.

“People would have to pay for water that flows from their house because the drainage system is considered a service,” he said.