Insufficient water catchment infrastructure will cause South Africa to face water challenges.

Government is currently rolling out reticulation projects to resolve water shortages across several communities. However, environmental studies experts say water challenges would be better resolved through adequate dam and reservoir development, SABC reported.

The country has recently experienced widespread water shortages and seen increased community protests over water. According to Julius Kleynhans, an environmentalist with AfriForum, demand versus supply is already an issue, leading to the increase in protests.

The increasing demand for water comes as a result of population growth and industrial development. Experts say this highlights the need for smart decisions regarding catchment management agencies, particularly in water scarce areas.

However, the Department of Water Affairs (DWA) says it invested R2 billion on new dams and water works between 2000 and 2006, with an additional R 8.2 billion earmarked for nine more projects. The new dams and water works have reportedly added 20% to the country’s storage capacity

Chief Director of Infrastructure Leornard Manus told SABC that the DWA’s plans to fully capacitate existing water catchment zones is more sustainable than developing new ones. “At this point you cannot exclude the development of dams in the future but, for now is to restore our boreholes and secondly to bring in water from existing systems via pipelines into the drying areas,” he said.