{"id":104441,"date":"2015-11-18T13:22:11","date_gmt":"2015-11-18T11:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=104441"},"modified":"2015-11-18T13:48:44","modified_gmt":"2015-11-18T11:48:44","slug":"who-is-using-all-the-water-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/104441\/who-is-using-all-the-water-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is using all the water in South Africa?"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Gauteng has briefly enjoyed some much needed rainfall (and hail), the water crisis in the country is expected to continue into 2016.<\/p>\n

South Africa has experienced little to no rainfall since the beginning of the year, and as a result, drought conditions are being experienced across the country.<\/p>\n

To date, five provinces are severely affected by the drought and have been declared disaster areas, with KwaZulu Natal the worst affected. Other provinces include Free State, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West.<\/p>\n

According to the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWA), South Africa experienced its worst drought in 1983 with the national average dam level at 34.0%.<\/p>\n

“Currently our national average dam level is sitting at 63.3%. This means that our regional water supply dams and schemes remain water secure sitting with positive water balance,” it said.<\/p>\n

South Africa receives an annual rainfall of 492 millimetres, close to half of the global average of 985 millimetres. It is therefore classified as a water-stressed nation.<\/p>\n

To compound matters, the country’s water distribution is split between east and west – 43% of South Africa’s total rainfall occurs on only 13% of the land according to the DWA.<\/p>\n

The DWA forecast in the mid-2000s that water demand would outstrip supply in Gauteng by 2013 – and the rest of the country by 2025 – but little has been done by industry and individuals to curb water wastage.<\/p>\n

\"Water<\/a>

Water levels in South Africa in 2015<\/p><\/div>\n

Who’s using all the water<\/h3>\n

There are six major water use sectors, namely, irrigation, urban use, rural use, mining and bulk industrial, power generation, and afforestation.<\/p>\n

Studies done by the department show that the vast majority of water in South Africa is used in agriculture, with over 60% of all available water going into the sector for irrigation.<\/p>\n

As much as 30% of water in SA is for urban and rural use (including domestic use), while the rest is split among industrial, power generation and afforestation uses.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Sector<\/th>\n%<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Irrigation<\/td>\n59.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Urban use<\/td>\n25.1%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mining and Bulk Industrial use<\/td>\n5.7%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Rural use<\/td>\n4.3%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Afforestation<\/td>\n3.7%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Power Generation<\/td>\n2.2%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

About 12% of all water is used for domestic (home) use, in the country.<\/p>\n

Urbanisation is a major problem – putting pressure on water systems, while\u00a0 growing cities leads to deforestation and an increase of pollution, which ruins water quality, too.<\/p>\n

While the profiles for rural and urban home use of water are very different, flushing toilets is the biggest water user in both areas.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Domestic Use<\/th>\nRural<\/th>\nUrban<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Toilets<\/td>\n73%<\/td>\n37%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bath and Shower<\/td>\n19%<\/td>\n32%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Washing Machine<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n17%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Other (Cooking, Cleaning, Washing Dishes, Drinking, etc)<\/td>\n8%<\/td>\n14%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Looking at homes with gardens, up to 46% of all water is used up taking care of it.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n
Homes with Gardens<\/th>\n%<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Gardening<\/td>\n46%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Other (See above)<\/td>\n54%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

More on water<\/h3>\n

10 tips on how to save water<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nearly 6,000 water related jobs at SA municipalities are unfilled<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Joburg hit with tighter water restrictions<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While Gauteng has briefly enjoyed some much needed rainfall (and hail), the water crisis in the country is far from over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":103729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874,1],"tags":[26,10755],"class_list":["post-104441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","category-trending","tag-headline","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104441"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104513,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104441\/revisions\/104513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}