When good is
good enough
S
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outh Africa’s scarce fresh
water is decreasing in quality
because of an increase in
pollution and the destruction
of river catchments caused by
urbanisation, deforestation, damming
of rivers, destruction of wetlands,
industry, mining, agriculture, energy
use and accidental water pollution.
As our population increases, there is
an increase in pollution and catchment
destruction.
On page 21 of this issue, read about how
the aliens have truly invaded, with South African
water experts expressing their concerns at
how alien plants are threatening to use up half
of the inflows into two important dams in South
Africa. Up to 50% of the annual inflows into two
main dams in the Western Cape and Limpopo
could be used up by alien plants over the next
45 years if they are left uncleared. Read how
local water experts’ recent research paper
reveals the impact of failing to control invasive
alien plants on our future water supply.
Our existing infrastructure is also not in good
shape. On page 10, Helgard Muller questions
the safety of our drinking water; he says it’s
not possible for the DWS to issue a general
statement stating that all water in South Africa
is safe to drink – the DWS is misleading South
Africans. The South African system is flawed
as the Blue Drop regulatory system for drinking
water quality has ground to a halt as published
reports have been scarce since 2014. As many
municipalities do not supply DWS with data,
there is no clear national perspective, which
leaves municipal drinking water systems
unregulated and the public in the dark.
So, what do we make of this? Our catchment
areas are under threat and our existing (old)
infrastructure, monitoring and maintenance
systems are a bit dodgy or, at least, unregulated.
Quite simply, we can’t afford to build more
dams and water transfer schemes as they cost
huge amounts of money. Not only that: building
new water systems in South Africa is often a
thankless task. There’s so much procurement
red tape to get tangled up in and many engineers
just want to get the job done; so, operation and
maintenance ranks low on their to-do lists.
Industry expert Mike Muller has some
pertinent and hard-hitting things to say about
keeping things simple on page 28. His view
about water treatment is that building simple
and robust equipment will work better and
last longer. And certainly, in water treatment
generally and disinfection in particular, there
are many alternatives. But in South Africa, at
the current state of our water infrastructure, we
can’t afford to allow the best to be the enemy
of the good. There comes a time when good is
good enough.
I hope you find this issue insightful, informative
and interesting and if you have any comments,
views or news relating to the water space
that you’d like to share, please email me at:
[email protected].
Water Sewage & Effluent May/June 2019
1