Looking around our metro, at the greenery of trees, verges, lawns and open spaces, you wouldn’t say we were in the grip of severe drought.
That we can’t see evidence of drought around us is part of what has lulled us into a sense of complacency in the eighth year of the worst drought on record, with the western supply dams at their lowest levels ever.
The metro’s water consumption has not declined meaningfully over the past two years, despite public information campaigns.
The needle remains firmly fixed at 50 megalitres/day (MLD) consumed beyond the targeted 230MLD which would enable a sustainable water supply for all.
Expansion of the Nooitgedacht water treatment works is another factor in our complacency, the assumption that this water from the Gariep Dam is enough to meet all our needs.
But last month, it was reported that Nooitgedacht was producing an average 178MLD, compared to the metro’s average demand of 282MLD.
Even though a number of water augmentation projects, such as boreholes, are starting to come on stream, they are not enough to make up the shortfall.
Over and above the drought, we have a crisis of water management, in which over 30% of “non-revenue” water losses are due to leaks.
Load-shedding and theft and vandalism of infrastructure worsen the problem of an already fragile and unstable system.
For consumers, this is an understandable source of frustration and contributes to unwillingness to play their part in saving water.
However, even without the supply-side problems, the fact remains that our daily water demand massively exceeds available supply.
This means that, at the same time as we put pressure on the municipality to deliver, we as consumers need to take responsibility for our water consumption and accept that we live in a water-scarce area.
Water scarcity is not going away, even if and when the drought breaks — we need to develop self-reliance and water resilience.
So, what can we as consumers do?
In manufacturing, it is about consuming less resources without compromising on production targets and quality.
An effective maintenance programme — as simple as regularly checking for leaks, as well as ensuring equipment is correctly maintained for optimal water and energy use — is key.
Where heat transfer, process flow and process cooling are concerned, clean systems set at the most efficient levels will demand less water than equipment that is not optimally maintained.
Harvest wastewater from industrial processes and re-use in other processes and ablutions where greywater use is possible; treating the water if necessary.
Take advantage of your roof space and harvest rainwater to reduce demand on the municipal supply.
Educate employees — share information on what your business is doing to reduce consumption, and encourage them to play their part.
There are plenty of simple, low-cost ways to save water in small businesses and households, information widely available on the internet, and we should all be implementing as many of these as we can.
Another aspect is the really worrying lack of participation by retailers and the hospitality sector.
We would like to see measures such as water-saving taps and shower heads, recycling of greywater, rainwater harvesting, and much more highly visible signage raising awareness of our water crisis, what the establishment is doing, and urging customers to use water sparingly.
We also encourage all businesses to learn from the watersaving, harvesting and recycling measures implemented by many of our large manufacturers.
The Business Chamber has information available on these projects and most of our members are willing to share information and advise other businesses, including small businesses.
Meanwhile, on the supply side, we expect the municipality to enforce bylaws, curb water theft and vandalism of infrastructure, monitor and ensure correct meter readings, and up the response time and rate of repairing leaks.
Alongside this, environmental interventions such as removing alien vegetation and rehabilitating indigenous vegetation and wetlands.
We would such as to see a targeted approach to water leaks being implemented, tracking litres saved rather than number of leaks fixed, as in the lessons shared with the municipality from the Business Chamber’s Adopt-a-Leak intervention last year.
A public-private partnership should be explored to focus on household leaks in indigent households without the means to address internal leaks themselves.
Finally, communication is key.
The effort to raise awareness of the water crisis and share water-saving information with the public, needs to be much bigger, more relentless and diversified across media platforms to reach all communities of the metro.
Right now, all of us are not doing enough.
Together, we can, and must, do more to turn the tide on this water crisis.
-Figures in this article were taken from the January 2023 report on the department of water & sanitation’s water crisis intervention in NMB.