Demand will outstrip water supply

Dolphin Coast residents need to prepare themselves to meet their own water needs if they want to continue living here.

“We are faced with many challenges that affect the reliability of our water supply – some beyond our control, some within our control,” said environmentalist (with a background in hydrology), Peter Houston.

He said our biggest long-term hope lay in consumers conserving water and we therefore must adjust our lifestyle.

“We live like water is not scarce while someone who walks 250 metres to a standpipe for water appreciates how precious water is.”

The current drought may only be part of the natural weather cycle, but the rapid growth in demand for water means water shortages are the new normal and the drought is a stern wake-up call, said Houston.

The 2030 Water Resources Group report, “Charting our water future”, predicts that the demand for water will eventually outgrow the supply and there will be a global water shortage.

Rural communities by default use a fraction of the water used by middle-class households with their swimming pools, washing machines, dish washing machines, flushing toilets, garden-irrigation, water features and hot baths and showers.

Houston said rural communities used between five and 25 litres per person per day, while middle class households use a massive 100 to 150 litres per person per day.

Meanwhile, leakages in our engineered water supply accounts for a large bulk of daily water loss and a concerted effort to stop wastage through leaks would make a big difference.

“Even a small percentage reduction in water losses on the part of bulk water supply and municipalities equates to a massive collective effort on the consumers’ side,” said Houston.

He said it did not make sense that we use drinking water to do things that could be done with grey water.

“The system should be changed so that we use grey water to bath, shower, wash dishes, do laundry, fill swimming pools and water the garden,” said Houston.

Everybody should harvest rain water, he said.

All new houses should be built with a reservoir system to be as self-reliant as possible.

This should be regulated by municipal bylaws South Africa is classified as a water scarce country – for example, the total flow of all our rivers is less than half that of the Zambezi River.

As the 30th driest country in the world, most of the country is semi-arid with little surface water, especially the western half.

Furthermore, South Africa has predominantly wide, shallow valleys in which to build dams, making our dams great “evaporation pans”.

The Hazelmere Dam (now at 26 percent) was approved by government in 1971 and the first phase completed in 1976 with the purpose of providing a reliable water supply for agricultural irrigation, industrial development and to meet the planned demands of rapidly growing urban areas.

The second phase was recommended in 2002 and the resource management plan recommending radial gates was completed in 2008.

Tenders were awarded in 2012 and 2013 and it was stressed at a tender bid on March 11, 2013 that increasing the dam was urgent.

The entire radial gate project was meant to be completed by September 2014.

Last week Ilembe mayor, Welcome Mdabe said work will start this month, 15 years after the then department of water affairs and forestry and Umgeni Water first recognised the prospect of water shortages.