“The major focus of the NWRS2 is equitable
access and use of water by all South Africans,
while sustaining our water resource,” he says.
“Equity and redistribution will be achieved
through the authorisation process, as well as
other mechanisms and programmes, such as
municipalities
infrastructure
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Sustainable water balance
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Balzer notes that ensuring a sustainable water
balance requires a multitude of strategies,
including water conservation and water
demand management (WCWDM), further
utilisation of groundwater, desalination, water
re-use, rainwater harvesting, and treated acid
mine drainage.
While South Africa benefited from a
surplus of available water in 2000, the time
has now come where a mix of water resources
is required to reconcile supply and demand.
Towards this end, Reconciliation Strategies
have been developed to assess water balance
against future needs.
These strategies will inform the country’s
future water resource planning, management
and investment, and key issues include:
• Greater focus on WCWDM: every drop
counts and we cannot afford to waste any
more water, anywhere;
• Increased value and utilisation of
groundwater;
• Re-use of water at the coast, as well as in
inland systems;
• Opportunity for more dams (though
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Development Plan (NDP), as well as National
Water Act (NWA) imperatives that support
sustainable development.
Writing the foreword to the NWRS2, Trevor
Balzer, a deputy director general of strategic
projects at the Department of Water and
Sanitation, says the strategy sets out how
South Africa will achieve the following three
core objectives:
• Water supports development and the
elimination of poverty and inequality;
• Water contributes to the economy and job
creation; and
• Water is protected, used, developed,
conserved, managed and controlled
sustainably and equitably.
water allocation reform, financial support to
emerging farmers, and support to urban and
rural local economic development initiatives.”
With the country’s growing population
as well as focus on economic growth and
development, South Africa needs to ensure
water security and healthy water ecosystems
that support its national imperatives. Balzer
points out that apart from the water demands
of the economic sectors (energy, mining and
agriculture), increasing urbanisation and
industrialisation place enormous pressure
on the scarce water resource in terms of
management and allocation.
“Over the past 10 years, water consumption
of the domestic sector has increased from 22%
to 27% of the total resource.
“While we have well-developed water
resources infrastructure (with more than 4 395
registered dams), we are fast approaching
the full utilisation of available surface water
yields, and are running out of suitable sites
for new dams. In addition, climate change
outcomes in terms of rainfall and temperature
will have a negative impact on water storage.
Water demand is likely to grow at about
1.2% over the next 10 years. We, therefore,
need to find new ways of reducing water
demand and increasing availability that move
beyond ‘traditional engineering solutions’ of
infrastructure development,” he says.
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