South Africa and the drought that exposed a young democracy

Abstract

South Africa is a young democracy currently going through a crisis of leadership. The worst drought in recorded history has played out at regional level but against the backdrop of complex political dynamics. The government has lost significant capacity at the technical level, largely the result of political priorities driven by the need to decolonise society and the institutions of higher learning. This has manifest in the water sector as systemic failures of key instrumentation systems, rendering the El Niño event invisible until it hit. This case study of the El Niño event shows that drought management is embedded within a broader political process and is not simply a technical management issue. The Vaal River system sustains 60% of the national economy and 45% of the total population of the country, but water security in this system has been placed at risk because of political dynamics.

Review on Main Issues Causing Deterioration of Water Quality and Water Scarcity: Case Study of South Africa

“…Another consequence will be the acceleration of nitrification and rates of biological process. The rise of temperature is in correlation with global warming and climate change effects (ACPC, 2011;AMCE, 2009;Howard et al, 2016;Turton, 2016;Du Plessis, 2017;Pfeiffer and Hepburn, 2016). The north of Kwazulu-Natal (KZN) province has experiencing this challenge; dam levels have reached critical low levels during high temperature periods in the last 3 years.…”

“…The volumes of AMD discharged per day in the country are very high, estimated in millions of litres per day. With good management practices and appropriate treatment technologies, AMD can be converted into clean water and may solve partially the problem of water scarcity in some affected areas in the country (ERMITE Consortium, 2004a;Turton, 2016;Chen, 2016). More studies should be undertaken in this regard…”

Investing in Water Purification Infrastructure in an Emerging Market: Some Considerations for Impact Investors in South Africa

“…A further ZAR502 million was reprioritised to increase access to water in drought-stricken areas. According to Turton (2016), government"s response was too late and inadequate given the severity of the drought in many parts of the country. A major concern is that the South African government does not have the required institutional or financial capacity to implement its infrastructure investment plans as set out in the National Water Resource Strategy (Lubisi, 2014) due to, amongst others, poor co-ordination between departments, a lack of skills and insufficient funding (Orr et al, 2009).…”