Gauteng, the center of South Africa’s economy, is suffering the most from water shortages brought on by declining reservoir levels as a result of high water demand.
Dr. Ferrial Adam, Water and Environment Manager for the Community Action Network (WaterCAN), believes that factors like inequality and aging infrastructure are to blame for the crisis that is causing the taps to run dry.
“We cannot deny that a second factor—on the municipal and local government levels—is having an impact on people’s access to water. People aren’t getting enough water as a result of the deteriorating infrastructure. There is also the issue of South Africa’s uneven water distribution. Less than 40% to 45% of homes have taps “added Adam
Expert approaches
Boitumelo Nkatlo, the founding director of BN-Aqua Solutions, created a plant that purifies acidic water discharged by mines in order to address the problem of water scarcity. And you can use this purified water for irrigation and drinking.
“Water is essential to life and is a limited resource, as we all know. We believe that there is water below us. Because we are using waste to treat this to a drinking stage, we are able to accept millions and millions that we can treat for a low cost “justifies Nkatlo
The founder of Colsto, Sizwe Mavuso, developed a water tank reuse model that could help communities conserve water, particularly in situations where taps are prone to running dry.
“The idea for the innovation came from a construction site where I used to work, where nobody has any access to water, and it came down to cost. The best part of this solution is that we want to harvest grey water, which is water that we already have.” Mavuso said
Millions of South Africans already consume water that was collected in reservoirs more than 400 kilometers away, according to Greenpeace, which claims that water is a resource that is very unevenly distributed. Climate change is making this risk of water insecurity worse.
