OPINIONISTA: Source water supply diversification – investing for the future By Shafick Adams
I bet that almost all policy and decision-makers have a direct or indirect investment portfolio. Most investment portfolios are diversified across a variety of stocks and bonds to minimise risk, to preserve capital and generate returns. Diversification is a well-established mechanism to protect a portfolio from volatility to the same events. In addition, a smart investment portfolio has a long-term game plan, it is continually interrogated and adjusted when required.
This is worsened by an increasing shift towards overall lower rainfall and higher evapotranspiration in southern Africa. Surface storage systems consist of about 4,395 registered dams, 3 601 of these are small dams serving mainly agriculture and municipalities. The few low capacity desalinisation plants are localised. Groundwater is widely but unevenly distributed, owing to the complexity of our geology.
There is even evidence to suggest that harvesting break-off icebergs and cloud-seeding can provide additional water under periods of severe water scarcity. Traditionally, South Africa had a source water portfolio that consisted mainly of surface water reservoirs and some groundwater. This goes against having a diversified portfolio that can mitigate against water shortages. All of its investments and institutional configurations serviced mainly surface water systems — a bubble was created.
However, if you look at the investments and institutional support for this resource, it becomes clear that water security is not the main driver when we plan. Large investments are made for bulk water systems with the assumption that it reaches most of the population. In the main, it provides water security for urban areas linked to these bulk systems.
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