To solve this looming problem the country will have to work with its neighbours to share water and agriculture resources, as well as reallocate its internal resources. Recently, Edna Molewa, minister of environmental affairs announced that, due to infrastructure costs, water tariffs would probably be increasing at a rate exceeding inflation.
Traditionally, said Dr Theo de Jager, vice president of AgriSA, South Africa has 15-year wet and dry cycles. The general trend indicates that the next dry cycle should start this year, but unusually high levels of rainfall have made water seem limitless and its price has stayed low. "The current government has never had to manage a drought ... You think people are angry about e-Tolls, imagine how angry they will be when the costs of their food shoot up as harvests drop," de Jager warned.
Private water expert Dr Antony Turton suggested a radical change to the way the value of water is seen. Instead of it being a resource that has to be bought from the department of water affairs, "it has to be seen as a risk to development, much like climate change." According to the Mail and Guardian, Turton said that psychology also has to change. Every drop of water has to be seen as "borrowed" from the cycle, and then returned. "Water can't just be poured out of a tap, paid for, and then forgotten. People have to understand that water cannot be created and what we have now is as much as there ever will be."
Read the full article on www.mg.co.za.
