Imtiaz Sooliman – World Water Week from Gift of the Givers on water challenges in SA

The International Union for Conservation of Nature is urging

South Africa as well as other drought prone countries, to invest

in nature based solutions to mitigate drought related risks.

This comes as drought related risks are increasing worldwide due

to climate change and demographic developments leading to poverty,

food shortages and lack of access to clean and sufficient drinking

water for vulnerable communities. Nature based solutions was thrust

into the spotlight during World Water Week, which is currently

under way in Stockholm, Sweden. Meanwhile, aid organizations have

been supplying water in some parts of South Africa struggling to

access clean drinking water. Gift of the givers has been at the core

of aid and ground stricken areas like the Nelson Mandela Bay and

areas hit by natural disasters like some parts of KwaZulu Natal

let's take this discussion further then. We're not joined via zoom by

Doctor amija suderman from gift of the givers, always a pleasure to

have you on the show. Very good afternoon to you.

Good afternoon. Thank you very much. You're working on the ground

and have been, you know, providing water to to areas that have been

struggling with access to water. Let's talk about how real the

situation of drought really is in the country and and and what your

experience has been as a gift of the big the givers, I'm sure. You

know, being as close to the ground as you are, you have more insight

for us.

It's a huge problem. This problem has started more around 2015 2016

if you look at this part of the Northwest, it then it ran into the

southern cape, the fires of nice now, 2017 June. One of the reasons

those fires are so big is because of the drought in the situation

and people, if things went very quickly, and also there was not

enough water to put things to fire off very quickly. At the same

time, the drought affected

economy from 2017

up to 2022 January, the ship count, the Merino sheep count,

which is a prized ship in the southern area, dropped from

440,000

to 31,000 it decimated farmers, the income, the loss of jobs with

farm workers. But this is all drought related, which had a

massive impact on the economy. And because of that, even places like

Makanda university student numbers started dropping, and many shops

and even franchises within the city itself dropped or closed, and

again, job losses were directly to the drought itself. Yeah, when

there was no water, people don't the guest the toilets didn't come.

Guest houses are not busy. And then many it was just a knock on

effect. Yeah, covid, 19, yes, sorry, sorry to come in there.

But, you know, speaking of the knock on effects, and I'm glad

you're talking about these direct links to other issues. Often when

dealing with with water shortages, you know, we're also then dealing

with other challenges that are coming on the back of that. And

especially these are communities that really could, you know, could

do better. You know, we could do better for them. Let's talk about,

you know, the contributing factors, you know, some of the

things that are also then affected. I mean, I understand

that even service delivery then becomes a problem leading from

that.

Yes, of course, lots of things will flow from that. No, then

that's, of course. On the one side, you have a lack of water

because of a drought itself. Secondly, you have a man made

problem where there's lack of maintenance in dams,

infrastructure pipes. The third prompt is that even though the

infrastructure pipes is there, it doesn't go to all the areas and

and then, of course, there's a huge population increase which

cannot cater for for that the water cannot cater for that

increase in population. So in terms of, you know, for the man

made problem, we are way behind on our maintenance we're putting

in.

All that's an additional issue that affects the drought itself.

So the one side spoke to you about sheep. Secondly, I spoke to you

about fire. Thirdly, that what was affected badly was the hospitals

during covid 19, and a lot of hospitals, we said, sanitize, wash

your hands weekly, and disinfected. But he couldn't do

that because there was no water, you know, and the only way to deal

with that, in the absence of rain, in absence of dams being full, in

absence of desalination, the only adoption was balls. And of course,

many, we drilled many balls, actually in Sutherland to save the

ship. We drilled 238 balls in Makanda in the crisis. We drilled

15. We put 11 in crafting it in the club plant also.

Let's talk about another aspect. When there's no water in schools,

the principals tell you, you know what we can still do without

drinking, but if the toilets don't function, we can't keep our

children at school. There's 1000 children here. There's 900

children here. What do we do? We can't keep them here when there's

no ablution facilities, so we need to send them home. You've lost so

much of time already during covid itself. And the same thing applies

to universities. Now. There's another effect. In the last few

weeks, there's the nematocystic municipality, there are strikes.

It's no there's no water. The water is flowing, but now, because

of the spec, the water can't come. The water is there, but it can't

be delivered. And 10,000 students.

Have been affected in forte University, many getting

dehydrated, many getting sick, you know, many having all kinds of

ailments because there's no water. So all these kind of knockout

effects come either from manmade crisis or from the drought itself.

Yeah, yeah. And, and, I mean, I want us to talk about, you raise

the issue of some man made issues, and I think that's the first place

where we can address the issues. I mean, we certainly can't do much

when nature decides to be cruel, but where we're having a situation

where the problem is man made. I mean, I was speaking to the MEC

last week from KZN, where they were, you know, complaining about

the protests, about a lack of water. And, you know, he was

blaming nature and not really reflecting on the issue of man

made problems. And maybe you can go into that for us about some,

some of the problems that are actually man made problems.

No, no, yes, nature is part of it. It's not, it's not the reason

that's an easy way to escape. You know,

look for right now in Pine town, and man in here, and parts of arms

into drilling boats where there was no crisis, there was no water.

Even before the floods came there, there was, there was no effort

made to look at different communities and put in pipelines.

It just wasn't there. And the pipelines that were there was so

poorly maintained, only maintained at all, that the whole system

broke down. You know,

for example, in Tonga, the entire plant is gone, or the entire area

gone. So it's, it's government has to take responsible huge problem

in in every government facility, there was just no follow up as as

as mandatory the finance minister, you're not going to go. Where was

the finance minister? Whenever new finance ministers come, they

should have a specific budget for maintenance and infrastructure, a

separate budget for that, for the whole country, controlled by the

Treasury. If that has to be done. This is no this is just putting so

much of pressure on people with patients say they can't people got

a water to drink, they can't buy their babies, they can't take

medication. So that's a huge problem. It's not only

infrastructure. It's not only drought related, it's

infrastructure related. And then the other, other very, very big

problem that we have in government is nobody takes responsibility.

You know, is it national national sales? There is they're not

responsible. Provincial says they're not responsible. Municipal

said they are not responsible. Who is responsible? Nobody takes

responsibility for the crisis. For now, let's go back to the crisis

in in KZN and in amateur district municipality. You know people on

strike for three weeks. Do you sit back and just don't do anything

about it? Or should all tears of government get together and say,

We need to find a solution rapidly. It's affecting the lives

of hundreds of 1000s of people in this area, in Eastern Cape, and

there's a total disconnect with all three tiers of government, and

they need to sit together to find a solution to how to deal

effectively and decisively. What crisis like this? Yeah. Alright.

Thanks, as always, for your time, your input, Doctor Suleman, we

appreciate your time here on sabc news.

Thank you. Alright, that is Dr mija Suleiman from gift of the

givers.