Sisulu addressed the country’s drought conditions in a media statement to announce its intervention to curb the drought impact in South Africa. This follows her department’s assessment which further discovered the levels of groundwater to be low. She says various methods have to be implemented. Drought operating rules, borehole drilling, water tanks, rainwater and fog harvesting, cloud seeding and evaporation suppression are amongst these methods. She says the recent drought is the worst since 2014. It also highlights the need for a more elaborate facility that can be applied to consistently guide management of water supply and mitigation against risks due to drought, facilitate equitable water supply under normal conditions, while mitigating the vulnerability by improving preparedness to cope with drought conditions.

The Free State province has 20 dams and only 1 is in a critical state. North West province has 28 and 3 are in a critical state, the Northern Cape has 6 and 1 is in a critical state. Sisulu says her department has funded existing projects to assist with the impact of the drought for the 2019-2020 period. The Free State has received R494 million in funding, the Northern Cape R90,1 million and North West R80 million.

South Africa and the region is impacted negatively by the less than average rainfall it receives. To a large extent this causes immeasurable strain on the delivery of water services to the public, not forgetting the impact of climate change resulting in abnormal conditions. She further says the best way to mitigate our vulnerability is to save and preserve the little available resources that we have, adjust our own behaviour and mentality towards water.

OFM News/Marvin Ntsane