Abstract
South Africa is a water-scarce country with increasing pressure on its water resources. Urgent interventions are needed to protect water security within this rapidly developing country. This paper reports on an interdisciplinary Water Security Colloquium, convened by the South African Young Academy of Science in 2014. A selected group of water professionals from academia, civil society and local government was brought together to discuss water security under three focus themes: ‘public expectations and municipal obligations’, ‘water security and governance: challenges and advances’, and ‘water re-use: health and infrastructural considerations’. Participant perceptions were generated using a focus group methodology, combined with participatory data collection methods. Under each theme, inputs were categorised as ‘challenges’, ‘gaps in knowledge’, and ‘solutions/recommendations’ and these inputs were thereafter ranked in order of importance via a ‘voting’ process. Major challenges perceived included a lack of both skills and political will in government, a need to restore citizen trust in government intention and capability to deliver water-related services, and a failure to up-scale existing water re-use technology. Participants identified understanding of the process and implications of the Green and Blue Drop Programmes, knowledge transfer to the public, and the role of educators as major knowledge gaps. The top suggestions proposed included creating public awareness around and buy-in to initiatives to improve water security, accessible and user-friendly conversion of research results to implementation, and ensuring an active role for educators in creating awareness around water security. In view of the concerns identified, participants suggested as potential solutions: improving government and public understanding around water issues, incentivising water re-use and conservation, introducing rising block tariffs and improving human capacity development in the water sector. Developing the ecological infrastructure that protects both quantity and quality of water and building strong partnerships among all stakeholders were also recognised as key. Keywords : capacity development, education, governance, water security, water re-use, water conservation, local government
Highlights
Since water is a source of life and livelihoods, access to safe drinking water is regarded as a basic human right and a symbol of dignity that recognises the inherent value and importance of every human being (Hardberger, 2005 and references therein)
Semi-structured interviews (n = 10) with water and sanitation experts were conducted prior to the colloquium to establish the key factors influencing water security in South Africa. These factors, which included governance, public expectations, municipal obligations and water re-use amongst others, informed the design of thematic areas to be addressed at the colloquium
The White Paper on a National Water Policy for South Africa and embedded documents assign the responsibility for the provision of water services, and the setting of tariffs, to local government (DWAF, 1997)
Summary
Since water is a source of life and livelihoods, access to safe drinking water is regarded as a basic human right and a symbol of dignity that recognises the inherent value and importance of every human being (Hardberger, 2005 and references therein). Vörösmarty et al (2010) showed that, despite this call for increased access to safe drinking water, in 2010 nearly 80% of the world’s population were exposed to high levels of water insecurity, regarded as the antipodal to water security While massive investment in water technology has enabled wealthy nations to offset high stressor levels over the past two decades without remedying their underlying causes, poorer nations remain vulnerable (UNICEF and WHO, 2015) This is true in Africa, where many regions ( rural areas) still display the lowest water supply coverage globally (Heijnen et al, 2014; UNICEF and WHO, 2015).
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