Water cuts loom as SA drought worsens

November 2 2015 at 09:55am 

By Kevin Crowley

REUTERSFile picture: Ahmad Masood

Johannesburg - South Africa may be forced to reduce the water supply in some areas as it battles its worst drought since 1992, according to Water Minister Nomvula Mokonyane.

Below-average rainfall in the past few months has led to “worsening drought conditions” in the nation, where two of nine provinces have been declared disaster areas, she told reporters in Johannesburg on Sunday. As a result, the government may have to cut supply to consumers and farmers, Mokonyane said.

“Water is a constitutional right in South Africa,” she said. “What we will do is reduce the supply. Where there is no water being provided, we will augment that with water tanks.”

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The timing and size of cuts will depend on the rate of voluntary rationing by South Africans along with future rainfall. Gauteng, the province that includes Johannesburg and Pretoria, imposed restrictions on using hoses and sprinklers on October 28.

South Africa is in the fourth consecutive year of drier-than-average weather, with 2015 the most severe. Arid conditions are slashing food production and boosting the price of staples such as corn. Caused by El Nino, a global weather pattern that denies moisture to the sub-Saharan region, the dry weather probably will persist through the remainder of this year and into March, a period when the country normally gets most of its rain, according to the South African Weather Service.

“Little relief is anticipated in the coming months,” she said.

The drought is straining water systems supplying about 18 percent of the country’s 53 million people, Mokonyane said. KwaZulu-Natal is the worst affected province, she said.

The government is spending about R350 million on measures to reduce the effects of the drought, such as drilling boreholes, upgrading infrastructure, capturing more rainwater and building desalination plants, facilities that make sea water potable. It will spend a further R95 million on water tanks and other steps to alleviate the drought.