South Africa is warming at twice the global average, according to the Department of Environmental Affairs.
This story provides striking examples pointing to a national crisis right up there with Eskom.
Enter the charity, Gift of the Givers, which has come to the aid of other South African towns in similar water-strapped states, including Beaufort West in the Western Cape.
“There are many grateful people in this town today,” Maclennan told Daily Maverick.
“In Beaufort West, leaks are estimated to see 40% of water waste away,” Western Cape local government spokesperson James-Brent Styan told Daily Maverick.
“These are, in my opinion, merely symptoms, not unlike Eskom, of the onset of total collapse of water infrastructure in SA,” Le Roy told Daily Maverick.
We are water-scarce in the entirety (of) South Africa,” he says.
Grahamstown / Makhanda residents queued patiently for their bottled water from Gift of the Givers.
“The establishment of an independent water regulator — like the National Energy Regulator for South Africa (Nersa) in the energy sector — is long overdue.” Le Roy says this body would be the first step towards “reinstating governance in the water sector”.
“Without these three steps we cannot arrest the implosion of SA’s water resources,” Le Roy warns.