From the Editor
Editor’s message
Praying for rain
Carol Posthumus
E
xcruciating drought conditions
and dry spells in parts of South
Africa saw the extremely sad
narratives unfold of people,
plants and livestock battling for water
and survival.
AgriSA in November called for prayers for
all dominations and religions for rain, with
farmers battling a harsh drought.
It appeared that strict water restrictions
would be implemented in several areas.
Prof Geoff Pegram at the University of
KwaZulu-Natal said in a WRC media
release: “We are all certainly going to have
to suffer water supply restrictions – I recall
the drought of the 1980s when, for over
six months, we in Durban were reduced to
400 litres per day for a household of 6;
if we went over our quota, the municipal
water people inserted washers with small
holes into our water meters to throttle our
usage.”.
Furthermore, Prof Pegram further noted
that most people are not going to
voluntarily cut their water use – it seems
that we do not have a very communal
caring attitude in this country, but tend
rather to look after our own interests. The
restrictions to reduce water consumption
and spread out the supply are going to
have to be official.
It does appear that consumer education
as to South Africa’s status as a dry country
should be conducted more widely. Even
with a severe drought unfolding, in the
Western Cape, for instance, many folk
still quite ignorantly switch on their home
irrigation systems at random times, with
the sight of expensively treated municipal
waters “irrigating” walls and driveways!
This seems crazy, when many communities
in our country are currently queueing up
for water at water tankers.
It seems South Africans need to be made
more aware of the importance of water
and water management. It seems clear that
irrigation and water management skills are
going to continue to be in high demand
– you will therefore welcome our special
SABI training special and our supplement.
We carry a report too on the Royal
Danish visit to South Africa, with 152
companies from South Africa and
Denmark participating in a business tour
of South Africa. The Danes are known
as leaders in water eff