Vaal area faces eight years of heightened water-risk
Speaking at the end of the World Water Forum in Marseille, France, senior Eskom and Sasol managers have warned that one big drought in the Vaal River catchment area over the next eight years could jeopardise the region's agricultural and industrial output, News24.com reports.
They added that the period from now until 2020, when Phase II of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) starts delivering water to the Vaal, was one of "major risk".
Eskom's general manager for water and environmental operations, Nandha Govender, said a drought would see the region "pushing the boundaries" of available water supply. "The risk lies with large industrial water users, agriculture and the municipalities... It's a situation we don't want to get into," he said. Particularly vulnerable would be large industrial water users, agriculture and municipalities located in and around the country's economic heartland, Gauteng. A drought would not necessarily pose a threat to Eskom and Sasol's ability to generate power and manufacture fuel - both are deemed "strategic water users" and unlikely to have their supply curtailed - the same would not apply to others.
"The biggest risk we see is reputational" Govender said. This relates to the way people react to "water being allocated to energy production versus water being taken away for basic human needs, and people not being able to do what they're used to [do] because of restrictions." According to News24.com, Govender also sees a 'reputational' conflict arising from the way water restrictions may affect agriculture and water for food security, "there you're going to have a lot of pressure [as well]," he said.
Read the full article on www.news24.com.
