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dam-l M&G on SA's draft water conserv. strategy/LS
>From the Mail & Guardina, Johannesburg, South Africa. August 19, 1999
As precious as life itself
Draft legislation aims to change the way South Africans
think about water, writes SALIEM
FAKIR.
IF you have intentions of expanding your swimming pool,
or -- as they do in Namibia when the
heat is on -- putting a sprinkler on your roof to cool
you down, you'll have to take into account the
attempts by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
to institute a comprehensive national
water conservation and demand management strategy.
The department's draft national strategy framework was
released recently for comment and discussion.
It includes measures aimed at preventing water loss -- in
some parts of the country water losses are
estimated to be as high as 50% -- and reducing demand by
influencing usage.
The strategy framework encourages a change in attitude,
given that South Africa is a water-scarce
country plagued by inefficient use of water in all sectors.
This has been perpetuated by a culture that
attaches no value to water because it has always been
provided at a cost lower than its true value.
The framework document estimates that if demand
management measures are not taken into account
in Gauteng, for example, over the next 20 years
the government will have to fork out R10-billion
on waste-water treatment plants and R17-billion
on new water augmentation schemes.
The framework aims to establish water use
efficiency, water conservation and environmental
protection, and equity objectives in all water use
sectors.
The mandate for water conservation emanates
from both the Water Services Act and the National
Water Act. The latter is designed to "ensure that
the nation's water resources are protected, used,
developed, conserved, managed and controlled in
ways which take into account among other factors: promoting
efficient, sustainable and beneficial use
of water in the public's interests".
Many things, as they say, are easier said than done.
There are four challenges facing proponents of water demand
management. The first involves shifting
"supply-side dominance", and ensuring that water
conservation and demand management is part of
what the framework document calls "integrated resource
planning".
By this is meant weighing various options arising from
supply and demand factors, and then deciding
which way forward between the two would be the best route
to take.
The incorporation of this kind of thinking is a long way
from being recognised within the dominant
water planning fraternity, who happen to be large dam
engineers with little time for the people whom
they view to be bunch of "softies" with too much of a
conservation mindset.
In many ways the battle to incorporate the principles of
water demand management as an intrinsic part
of the management of water resources is not over, and
neither is it close to being won. At present, out
of a total of R270-million allocated to water planning,
only R16-million is committed to water
conservation and demand management.
The second challenge is a social and psychological one:
fundamentally changing the behaviour patterns
of water users.
During periods of extreme drought, changes to behaviour
have been achieved, albeit with the use of
restrictive and punitive measures. No sooner are the
droughts over than the bad habits return again.
Consumer habits need to be changed to incorporate an
element of awareness prodded along by
regulatory oversight. Ways must be found to encourage
consumers to regard water to be as precious as
life itself.
The third challenge is to target the largest consumers. The
agricultural sector reportedly gulps down
about 50% of the country's water resources. Hiding behind
emotive arguments about food security, the
agricultural sector is resistant to the "new thinking".
This is the sector the strategy framework hopes to
engage to find reasonable ways of introducing efficiency.
Successes may be more easily achieved in the urban and
industrial sectors. For instance, the Windhoek
municipality has reduced consumption between 30% and 50%
since demand management programmes
were instituted several years ago.
The framework document does not really come to grips with
how local government institutions will
introduce the measures as part of their water resource
management strategies and services.
Stumbling blocks are likely to occur in providing financial
incentives for co-operation, beefing up
infrastructure and, most important of all, getting people
to pay for better services.
And then there is the obstacle of convincing planners and
engineers that conservation and demand
management is where the future of water lies.
-- The Mail & Guardian, August 19, 1999.
Saliem Fakir is country programme co-ordinator for the
IUCN-South Africa (World Conservation Union)
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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