27 January 2017 | Fortunate Machaba
South Africa does not receive rain often enough to supply the country’s water needs. This issue is mostly affecting areas in Cape Town and Durban.
Cape Town municipality has recently urged the residents to follow water restrictions. Residents were expected to use a bucket for washing cars and implement water saving measures in order to maintain a water supply to last them until the next rainy season.
The city consumes about 890 million litres a day for a week, according to media reports.
Water levels around KZN have also recently dropped due to too little rainfall and and a high demand for water. Besides the lack of rainfall the lack of infrastructure and sanitation to support the water system has put a strain on water supplies.
The Department of Water and Sanitation spokesperson Sputnik Ratau says, “As long as we don’t have sufficient rain we will always have water crisis, we need to understand that we are a water scarce country”. He added that the people need to follow the restrictions and that we should be saving water.
It is not the first time that South Africa has had water issues. Water shortages are an ongoing problem that is yet to be resolved.
People need to continue using water sparingly by following the municipal restrictions to maintain the reserves that the country has.
