An expert believes the water crisis could have been avoided had the government acted sooner.
University of South Africa (Unisa) geography department lecturer Dr Anja du Plessis, told News24 the drought, caused primarily by the El Nino, was exacerbating the water situation. “Had we acted soon regarding the building of dams, the situation would have improved the water availability,” she said. The country has been gripped by water shortages showing no signs of abating, prompting the national government to last week declare KwaZulu-Natal a disaster area. Water affairs and sanitation minister Nomvula Mokonyane this weekend said the drought affected 173 of the 1 628 water supply schemes nationally, serving about 2.7 million households. Du Plessis said the crisis was two-pronged with the country facing problems of water quality and water availability. “The mismanagement of resources is affecting the water availability. With water quality, the problem is we have a huge waste water works infrastructure not [being] maintained.” She said the water quality in some areas was so bad water could not be used for consumption.“[This was happening] in areas where the population had grown and the urban areas are expanding and government hasn’t improved waste water works systems.
This leads to the pollution of our water source. In Ermelo and Hammanskraal, there have been reports of people who complained about the worms in their water and this affects people’s health.” She said the other problem was that water needed to be treated to bring it to drinking standard. “The higher your pollution content, the more expensive it will cost to treat the water.”
