{"id":43916,"date":"2025-04-10T16:34:31","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T16:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/?p=43916"},"modified":"2025-04-11T05:36:36","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T05:36:36","slug":"south-africa-confronts-a-looming-water-shortage-threatening-agriculture-food-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/builder\/south-africa-confronts-a-looming-water-shortage-threatening-agriculture-food-security\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa confronts a looming water shortage threatening agriculture, food security"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post<\/a> was originally published on this site<\/a><\/p>

<\/p>\n

Experts on Thursday said they believed that the water crisis has a huge impact on the agricultural industry after a JP Landman report released last week indicated that South Africa was one of the 30 driest countries globally.<\/span><\/p>\n

The report <\/span>indicated<\/b> that without major interventions, the country faced a projected 17% water shortfall by 2030.<\/span><\/p>\n

The situation is exacerbated by systemic issues in water management, notably failing infrastructure and inadequate maintenance. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Alarmingly, nearly half of the water supply\u201447%\u2014is classified as non-revenue water, significantly above the international norm due to leaks, theft, and poor metering practices. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The implications extend beyond statistics; they threaten the very backbone of South Africa’s agricultural industry which relies heavily on adequate water supply.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The report also underscored the complexities of South Africa\u2019s water dependencies, noting that the nation relied on 22 strategic water sources across five provinces, drawing on cross-border catchments from Lesotho and Eswatini to fill dams that supply water to its nine provinces\u2014four of which lack natural sources entirely.<\/p>\n

As infrastructure investments advance, including the substantive Lesotho Highlands Water Project, municipal mismanagement continues to create significant bottlenecks.<\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s consumption is another pressing issue, with citizens averaging 233 litres of water per person daily, dramatically outpacing the global average of 173 litres.<\/p>\n

Gauteng, in particular, is nearing a consumption level of 300 litres per person. Despite heightened awareness of water conservation, the dire need to confront non-revenue water remains a leading challenge.<\/p>\n

The Blue Drop, Green Drop and No Drop reports serve as a sobering reflection of the nation’s water troubles. In 2023, more than half of the water treatment systems in South Africa either failed or barely met quality tests, with 64% of wastewater treatment plants running at high risk of discharging untreated waste into the environment.<\/p>\n

Theo Boshoff, CEO of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz), said that agriculture uses 62% of South Africa\u2019s water.<\/span><\/p>\n

With a growing population and growing urban areas, Boschoff are unlikely to get any additional water allocations. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe focus within the industry is to use water more efficiently, e.g. drip irrigation, shade cloth, sensors and monitoring to more accurately measure the water that is required,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI would venture to guess that JP Landman\u2019s comments most likely relate to urban areas in any event. I know Gauteng, the Western and Southern Cape, and Nelson Mandela Bay are growing in size and will continue to face pressure on water availability.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Francois Rossouw, CEO of Southern African Agri Initiative (Saai), said that<\/span> insufficient water availability could severely disrupt food production, raise food prices, and negatively affect both farmers and consumers, given that much of the country’s staple foods such as grains, vegetables, and fruits were produced on irrigated lands.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn addressing this looming crisis, it’s critical to highlight the ongoing challenges related to water rights allocation and the transfer of these rights, which directly impact agricultural productivity,\u201d he said. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe process of water rights management must be transparent, efficient, and fair to ensure farmers have secure and predictable access to water.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rossouw added that it was crucial that policymakers actively involve farmers and agricultural stakeholders in discussions around water reforms and allocation processes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWithout meaningful consultation and participation from the agricultural community, policy interventions risk being ineffective or even counterproductive, ultimately compromising food production and economic stability.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

BUSINESS REPORT<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Experts on Thursday said they believed that the water crisis has a huge impact on the agricultural industry after a JP Landman report released last week indicated that South Africa was one of the 30 driest countries globally.The report indicated that without major interventions, the country faced a projected 17% water shortfall by 2030.The situation is exacerbated by systemic issues in water management, notably failing infrastructure and inadequate maintenance. Alarmingly, nearly half of the water supply\u201447%\u2014is classified as non-revenue water, significantly above the international norm due to leaks, theft, and poor metering practices. The implications extend beyond statistics; they threaten the very backbone of South Africa’s agricultural industry which relies heavily on adequate water supply.The report also underscored the complexities of South Africa\u2019s water dependencies, noting that the nation relied on 22 strategic water sources across five provinces, drawing on cross-border catchments from Lesotho and Eswatini to fill dams that supply water to its nine provinces\u2014four of which lack natural sources entirely.As infrastructure investments advance, including the substantive Lesotho Highlands Water Project, municipal mismanagement continues to create significant bottlenecks.South Africa\u2019s consumption is another pressing issue, with citizens averaging 233 litres of water per person daily, dramatically outpacing the global average of 173 litres.Gauteng, in particular, is nearing a consumption level of 300 litres per person. Despite heightened awareness of water conservation, the dire need to confront non-revenue water remains a leading challenge.The Blue Drop, Green Drop and No Drop reports serve as a sobering reflection of the nation’s water troubles. In 2023, more than half of the water treatment systems in South Africa either failed or barely met quality tests, with 64% of wastewater treatment plants running at high risk of discharging untreated waste into the environment.Theo Boshoff, CEO of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz), said that agriculture uses 62% of South Africa\u2019s water.With a growing population and growing urban areas, Boschoff are unlikely to get any additional water allocations. \u201cThe focus within the industry is to use water more efficiently, e.g. drip irrigation, shade cloth, sensors and monitoring to more accurately measure the water that is required,\u201d he said.\u201cI would venture to guess that JP Landman\u2019s comments most likely relate to urban areas in any event. I know Gauteng, the Western and Southern Cape, and Nelson Mandela Bay are growing in size and will continue to face pressure on water availability.\u201dFrancois Rossouw, CEO of Southern African Agri Initiative (Saai), said that insufficient water availability could severely disrupt food production, raise food prices, and negatively affect both farmers and consumers, given that much of the country’s staple foods such as grains, vegetables, and fruits were produced on irrigated lands.\u201cIn addressing this looming crisis, it’s critical to highlight the ongoing challenges related to water rights allocation and the transfer of these rights, which directly impact agricultural productivity,\u201d he said. \u201cThe process of water rights management must be transparent, efficient, and fair to ensure farmers have secure and predictable access to water.\u201dRossouw added that it was crucial that policymakers actively involve farmers and agricultural stakeholders in discussions around water reforms and allocation processes. \u201cWithout meaningful consultation and participation from the agricultural community, policy interventions risk being ineffective or even counterproductive, ultimately compromising food production and economic stability.\u201dBUSINESS REPORT<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-builder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43917,"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43916\/revisions\/43917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.premium-partners.net\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}