Freshwater Scarcity

Water is an important natural resource in our life. There are many countries which have problems with this vital resource in different fields. One of these countries that have a water problem is South Africa.

South Africa is facing a problem regarding lack of availability of water.http://www.ext.grida.no/soesa/nsoer/issues/water/index.htm It is one of the countries that have limited resources of freshwater compared with most other countries. It is one of the countries that have the lowest rainfall rate which means that it lacks in the surface water resources. Similarly, it also has low average in the underground resources. This situation puts South Africa in a serious stress to supply the increasing demand of the amount of water and the quality of water in view of the population growth and economic development rates. It led South Africa to highly depend on every major river in the country to meet the water requirement. However, these rivers are seasonal and do not have a stable amount of water during the year and consequently supplying the water is difficult.

There are many factors that affect the scarcity of fresh water availability in South Africa. One of these factors is the natural conditions. The type of climate in South Africa is low rainfall and high evaporation rate. These make the availability of its freshwater scarce.

The rapid of population growth in South Africa affects the availability of freshwater. It leads to greater demand for fresh water resources which are already under stress. For example many of the country’s rivers have been dammed to provide water for the increasing population.

The increase of population growth leads to the economic development. The industrial practice is another factor that affects the availability of fresh water in South Africa.http://www.environment.co.za/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1819 This causes the water pollution which includes industrial wastes, domestic and commercial sewage, acid mine drainage, pesticides and herbicides, and rubbish. The pollution affects the quality of the country’s water resources and then put more pressure on it.

Furthermore, pervious legislations regarding water also caused a pressure on the water resources. For example, the water was available to the commercial farmers for free and others paid a nominal amount. That affected the population’s habits and their awareness of water conserving value.

In order to solve the problem of the availability of fresh water, the government of South Africa joined international programs that manage the water resources. It signed several international regulations that ensure co-operation between South Africa and neighboring countries where international rivers are concerned. In addition to commitment to the international regulations that manage water resources such as the Helsinki Rules.

At the local level, South Africa has put regulations that affect its water resources. For example Water Services Act 108 of 1997 that provides regulations that ensure meeting the basic people’s needs of water that include water supply and sanitation. Another example is the National Water Act 36 of 1998 which improved the old water law in the country and brought the regulations that were previously only talked about into implementation. These regulations concern the development of national water resources management, protection of its water resources, pollution prevention, controlling of water allocation and its stream-flow.

South Africa also established many agencies that are in charge of water resources management which are called Catchment Management Agencies (CMAs)

In conclusion, I think the above mentioned attitudes are effective because the country is aware of the serious situation that it has and has made a strong impact on reducing the gap between available water supply and water demand and conserving its water resources, but I would emphasize exploiting of deep groundwater and the use of aquifers for storage of excess water.http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0305-05.htm I would also recommend reusing the waste water for agricultural irrigation. Recycling of waste water will reduce the amount of waste water, reduce the amount of the demand of freshwater and provide a reliable source of water for agriculture at the same time. In addition, I would advise educating the population for better awareness of water use and conservation. The government can also manage the water pricing so it will create more awareness of water conservation. Furthermore, I would recommend using the new technologies available in the international market or developing further technologies that fix the water shortage such as technologies for reducing the consumption of water and for reducing the evaporation of underground water.




Reference:

http://www.ext.grida.no/soesa/nsoer/issues/water/index.htm
http://www.environment.co.za/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1819
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0305-05.htm