COMMUNITY LIVING
Impact of load shedding on water
HOW CAN WE PLAN EFFECTIVELY ?
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38 S U S T A I N A B I L I T Y
The current scenario
With so much attention focused on Eskom and its slow descent into systemic failure , we need to start understanding the implications of what appears to be an irreversible trend under current management scenarios . If we accept that electricity literally creates the foundation for any modern economy , we need to start planning for a future in which historically accepted norms are no longer relevant .
It is increasingly accepted that water and energy are interrelated . This is called the water-energy nexus , which was identified by the World Economic Forum as an emerging risk of an increasingly global magnitude . This is driven by a growing population , which in turn triggers massive migration to urban areas . Africa is not exempt from this , with more than 50 % of the population of most countries now living in urban areas .
In South Africa this is particularly acute , given our history of racial segregation , of which influx control was a key instrument in the policy of apartheid . It therefore comes as no surprise that when we became a democracy in 1994 , influx control was immediately abolished , triggering an unprecedented migration from rural areas . In most cases this was encouraged by certain political parties , keen to alter the voting pattern within historically advantaged areas . The emergence of informal settlements became a permanent feature on our urban landscape in the late 1990s .
To better understand this in a South African context , we need to consider three specific aspects that draw the issue of electricity security and water security into sharper focus .
The first aspect is the geography of South Africa , which has given us a specific spatial relationship between people and resources . A unique feature of our country is the existence of a high-altitude plateau called the Highveld , which covers a large area of relatively low rainfall distribution . The grasslands of the world – from the