SA has more than enough water. But water experts say that with R9bn worth of water wasted every year through leaks and poor management, there are few resources to ease the threat of a drought that could cripple vast farming regions.
Trevor Balzer, who is on the presidential economic advisory panel on water and sanitation, and Mike Muller, former director-general of water affairs say SA doesn't need more money but rather urgent improvements to the management of water.
Government incompetence and non-existent drought plans, along with mismanagement of emergency drought-relief budgets and water infrastructure development and repair programmes, have drained resources, they say.
This has put the jobs of about a million farm workers at risk, and made the country vulnerable to food and water insecurity, according to agricultural economists and farming associations.
Muller said the main offenders in mismanagement and wasted money were:
• The government's R3bn War on Leaks programme;
• The Giyani water project in Limpopo, which was to bring water to 55 villages; and
• Repeated delays in the development of the Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS).
According to Rand Water, which helped implement the War on Leaks programme, only 1,094 of the 15,000 trainees completed training. It is unclear how many of the trainees have started working.
Last month a notice on the programme's Facebook page informed trainees that there was no money to pay them for June to September.
The Special Investigating Unit and the public protector's office is investigating the Giyani project, which should have cost R700m but on which the government has spent nearly R3bn - with villages still without piped water.
In September, Deputy President David Mabuza pledged R1.1bn to fix the Vaal system. The department of water & sanitation then released R150m, which went to the SA National Defence Force, whose engineers were meant to fix sewerage works. The department has since removed army engineers and is to bring in a water management company.
Water affairs spokesperson Sputnik Ratau said minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, would tomorrow brief the media on urgent measures to address the country's water challenges.
He said matters of failing infrastructure were not always due to a lack of capacity but also high demand, illegal connections, vandalism and pollution of water ecosystems.
"SA is water scarce, so the reality of less than world-average rainfall, rapid urbanisation, climate change, desertification - especially from the west - and rapid population growth cannot be ignored," said Ratau.
SA is water scarce so the reality of less than world-average rainfall, rapid urbanisation, climate change, desertification and rapid population growth cannot be ignored
— Water affairs spokesperson Sputnik Ratau
AgriSA said that while R3bn was needed in drought relief within the next financial year, the department of agriculture, land reform and rural development said the R728.5m it had budgeted for drought programmes over the past two years was spent.
The SA Weather Service said the country had experienced droughts since 2013 with uncertainty growing over when the summer rains would fall.
Agricultural economist Professor Johan Willemse said that if rain fell in late December or January, it would affect planting.
"We could see a 50% increase in the importing costs of white maize, which will rise from R3,000 per ton to R4,500 per ton. This will cause major meat price increases."
Already South Africans are starting to feel more of a pinch.
Mervyn Abrahams, director of the Economic Justice and Dignity Group, which runs a national household affordability index, said the drought was a factor in the cost of the household food basket. It increased by R146.14 (4.8%) from R3,038.50 in October 2018 to R3,184.63 this year.
He said the increase in vegetable prices in October was caused by high temperatures, low rainfalls and late frosts in KwaZulu-Natal.
"A 10kg pocket of potatoes increased by 34% with a pocket averaging R73, a 10kg pocket of butternut increased by 50% with a pocket averaging R78, carrots and spinach increased by 12%; cabbage increased by 10%, and onions by 9%," he said.
AgriSA said in its 2018/2019 drought report that 31,000 farming jobs had been lost since January 2018 in the drought hotspots of KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Western Cape, North West, Limpopo and the Northern Cape.
Water restrictions are in force in some provinces. In the Northern Cape, water is shut off overnight in its main town, Kimberley, while Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane this week declared the province a disaster area.
Water restrictions are in force in its two metros, Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City.
KZN lifted a two-year restriction in August thanks to rising dam levels, but in Gauteng Rand Water announced on Thursday level 2 restrictions for Johannesburg.
Joburg Water has begun throttling reservoirs by between 20% to 40%.
Balzer said the government's draft water plan called for stopping leaks and identifying water wastage, two areas where the government could intervene immediately.
Longer term, he said, there should be an increase in the capacity of dams and better education about water.
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