By Chetan Mistry, Strategy and Marketing Manager at Xylem Africa
Think about opening a tap only to see a tepid stream of water flow from it. How does that make you feel? Frustrated? Concerned? Even fearful? The connection we make with water is primal.
There are few experiences that so readily stoke feelings of insecurity, panic and dread like not having access to water.
Today, protests over water shortages are becoming more common across South Africa, even in major metros such as Johannesburg and eThekwini. Yet, those communities are still in a relatively positive position, considering that 19% of rural SA don’t have access to reliable clean water.
The recent WISA 2024 Conference, hosted by the Water Institute of Southern Africa at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre from 12-14 June, provided an excellent platform to tackle these problems. The best minds and most passionate changemakers gathered to see what we can do about South Africa’s critical water issues.
Dry taps and popular anger over water shortages are not forming in a vacuum. However, we can find solutions if we look into these problem areas. The WISA conference highlighted several solutions that we can start enacting.
Foremost, several speakers said that we need to change attitudes around water. It’s not someone else’s problem—water concerns everyone. South Africa needs a culture shift towards protecting water, similarly to how the nation reacted to the electricity crisis.
Encouraging water knowledge and community ownership improves water conservation, pollution reporting, rainfall capture and greywater recycling. Smaller and rural communities can control their water through solar borehole pumps and low-maintenance infrastructure, and community farms save considerably when they use techniques such as drip irrigation and water recycling.
Delegates discussed the problems at local government water facilities, notably crumbling infrastructure and budget shortfalls. Non-revenue water losses such as leaks and water theft are harming service delivery, sustainability and funding. But there are effective ways to tackle these issues.
Through smart metering and billing solutions, municipalities can better predict water consumption and appropriately bill large water consumers. Modern technologies can detect leaks and water theft, recouping lost earnings without halting operations. Industries including mines, farms, and manufacturers, can leverage smart water technologies to save money and reduce risks and losses around water rationing and quotas.
The topic of water pollution surfaced often during WISA 2024 discussions. Several experts lamented the dire state of local rivers and wetlands. They urged much greater urgency and collaboration to act on water issues, with an emphasis on stopping pollution at the source and rehabilitating heavily-polluted waterways. Many of these changes can happen through private and municipal treatment operations.
Modular water treatment solutions integrate new technologies into established treatment sites. Resilient and variable-frequency pumps require less maintenance while handling a wider range of solid objects and fibres that normally damage traditional pump systems. UV and ozone systems complement chlorine disinfection while reducing reliance on and storage of corrosive chemicals. Self-contained modern bioreactors remove harmful bacteria without requiring regular maintenance or costly manual interventions.
These examples apply to public and private use cases: industrial, food processing, and agriculture sites can deploy modular waste treatment systems that increase water efficiency and lower costs. And we can widen the scope to include aggressive enforcement of pollution laws, rehabilitating wetlands and rivers, and recharging aquifers.
The WISA 2024 Conference produced many more ideas to help turn the tide on water shortages. It’s crucial that we do so. The anguish caused by strained water resources is very evident in our society. People are concerned and angry. We are in the midst of a growing water crisis. Yet, we have the expertise and technology to change the tide and keep water flowing. It’s not too late to change the picture and ensure everyone enjoys reliable access to clean water.