SA BANDAID FOR RISING WATER CRISIS

“Water security remains one of the most tangible social, political, and economic challenges faced by communities across the globe today,” states South African Local Government Association (SALGA) councillor, Pinky Moloi. 

Here at home we read about it on a regular basis. Residents in certain areas of Johannesburg were left without water for more than three weeks after a recent water crisis in Gauteng areas, with similar reports in the Eastern Cape and Free State, according to an article published on ENCA. In a related article on ENCA, "SA's water crisis - is it worse than you think?", residents of Tsakane in Brakpan, Ekurhuleni, experienced debilitating effects due to water outages, where children were unable to attend school. Water had to be retrieved in buckets for basic functions like washing and drinking from neighbouring areas.Cases like these have been recurring across the country more and more frequently of late with devastating results brought on by droughts and by poor management of the country's water systems and electricity grid.

According to the CEO of the South African Water Research Commission, Dhasen Naidoo, "we have to concentrate on finding ways to re-use and recycle water, six to seven times if possible. We must learn to be water-wise, particularly in areas such as sanitation.”

How does this affect us, and can we rest assured that these processes will be managed more adequately than the track record to date? What short term water solutions are out there to sustain us until systems have been upgraded by the government?

It may be worth your while knowing about something that might be a short-term solution. A water filter of Swiss origin. LifeStraw®water filters convert contaminated water into clean, safe drinking water. This chemical free, ultra-filtration system has undergone rigorous tests internationally and by the SABS and is proven to instantly convert contaminated water into safe drinking water, removing up to 99.9% of bacteria, viruses and protozoan cysts. It also removes turbidity, volatile organic compounds, chlorine and trace chemicals from the water. Products range from those that filter 1000L of contaminated water, right up to the light-weight community unit with four taps which filters 100 000L of water.

Offering a short to long term solution to the problem, hopefully products like these will buy us some time as we face a looming R180 billion rand water infrastructure crisis. The local contact for the products is Aqua4Life. 

Various role players and products are listed in the general Water chapter of The Agri Handbook for South Africa. Water is part of the context in which the agricultural value chain finds itself.  

This article is based on a press release by Red Carpet Concepts. 

And so say all of us!

South Africa's cumulative trade deficit was R71.4-billion [USD 6.2-billion] in 2013. A year later, according to the South African Revenue Service (Sars), it was R95.3-billion [USD 8.3-billion].

We're going in the wrong direction.

So a slight feeling of relief then at the news that in the month of December 2014 the country recorded a trade surplus of R6.9-billion [exports of R87.5-billion and imports of R80.5-billion].

Agriculture does not only feed us; does not only release the rest of the country's citizen's to pursue other jobs (since they can now buy food at the nearest shop); does not only provide fibre for processing and provide for jobs upstream and downstream; does not only provide stability in rural areas; it is also an important earner of foreign exchange.

Included in South Africa's major agricultural exports is citrus fruit, deciduous fruit, wine, subtropical fruit, wool, corn, sunflower seed and oil and raisins.

A toast to agriculture!

Click on the hyperlinked words above to find the overviews of those sectors in The Agri Handbook.