Water Scarcity In Africa

The current statistics shows that South Africa is a water-scarce country with an annual freshwater availability is less than 1700m3 per capita, whit limited average rainfall of about 450mm per year and unevenly distributed water resources. South Africa’s has come up whit the strategy of many dams must be built for water storage to sustain us in the future. According to (De Villiers & De Wit, 2010) South Africa’s dam storage capacity is 66% of this volume with the reliable surface water yield at 82% of its maximum capacity under current rainfall and evaporation conditions. Water has historically been allocated to meet the demands of irrigated agriculture, mining projects, and urban growth. Most recently, government has strived to allocate water

According to (Tapelo, 2012) there are two forms of scarcity are often identified namely, physical or environmental and structural water scarcity. Physical scarcity refers to deficits in the natural availability of water and is a function of a combination of natural attributes such as climate, hydrology, geomorphology soil and vegetation as well as human-induced physical modifications of these. On the other hand, structurally-induced water scarcity relates to the political-economy of resources allocation and the attendant institutional frameworks, structures and procedures of water

Under-pricing is mostly the result of government subsidies that provide irrigation water, electricity, and diesel fuel to farmers to pump water from rivers and aquifers at below-market prices. The subsidies keep water prices artificially low giving users little or no financial incentive to invest in water-saving technologies. It also encourages the growing of water thirsty crops in dry areas (not sustainable). Higher water prices encourage water conservation but make it difficult for low-income farmers and city residents to buy enough water to meet their needs. When South Africa raised water prices it dealt with this problem by establishing lifeline rates which give each household a set amount of free or low-priced water to meet their basic needs. The second major cause of water waste is a lack of government subsidies for improving the efficiency of water use. Removing environmentally harmful subsidies that encourage water waste and providing environmentally beneficial subsidies for more efficient water use would sharply reduce water waste and help to reduce water shortages. Climate change is another cause of water scarcity in the country, climate change in South Africa is expected to result in increased temperatures and decrease rainfall in much of the country. Figure 1, shows that most of the country will receive less rain, apart from Lesotho and the Eastern Cape Drakensburg (Schulzer, et al, 2005). These