In South Africa, the City of Cape Town has been hard hit by this water famine, forcing the city to employ water usage restrictions in order to preserve the little that its dams still hold.
However, what must also be appreciated is the high level of technical competence with respect to water resource and water services planning and provision within the city.
Being one of the few cities in South Africa that manages its water supply from the catchment back to the catchment (with no water board), the city has always had a more holistic view of what it takes to ensure water security for its citizens – there are extensive plans and activities to that effect.
Over and above the use of alternative sources for bulk supply management, demand for potable water is expected to outstrip supply by 2030 in a number of areas, thereby compounding the water crisis.
This is against high levels of non-revenue water, water use inefficiencies and governance failures in several water institutions.
Balancing the demand and supply equation will require significantly improved performance in the measurement and management of all components of non-revenue water and positive behavioural change in consumers to achieve improved water use efficiency.
Internationally, access levels to basic and safely managed sanitation are estimated at 68% compared to 88% for access to basic and safely managed water service.
Poor payment culture The water sector is adversely affected by the poor payment culture, which is pervasive and ranges from institutional consumers, including municipalities owing water boards, government departments owing municipalities, to residential consumers owing municipalities.
Consumer water management practices The most important activity that consumers can do is to quantify their water consumption by, at the veryleast, reading the municipal meter on a regular basis.
We are in a water scarce country after all!