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water scarcitylatest news & developments
In many regions, human–water systems are already in a post-crisis state of failure. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy

World enters era of ‘global water bankruptcy’, UN report warns

Traditional talk of a water crisis and water stress no longer reflects the current reality

Residents, community organisations and civil society groups across Johannesburg have united to demand urgent action to end the city’s deepening water crisis. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Is South Africa ready for a green hydrogen economy?

Water scarcity is the most pressing problem in developing a green hydrogen economy

Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina has approved a temporary increase in water abstraction by Rand Water to stabilise Gauteng’s strained municipal water systems (DWS/X)

Water and sanitation department ramping up reforms, interventions to avoid water crisis

Of South Africa’s 144 water service authorities, 105 are performing ‘dismally’, according to Minister Pemmy Majodina

Contractors from Paragon Tailings doing trial hydraulic reclamation of the phosphogypsum stacks. Photo supplied

Limpopo rare earths project aims to clean up the environment

At least six decades of mining has caused significant environmental damage in the Phalaborwa area

A farmer attends to cocoa beans drying on a rack at a farm in Kwabeng, Ghana. (Paul Ninson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Corruption, water scarcity, and outdated farming are undermining food security in Africa

Political instability and conflict compound the crisis, as wars displace farming communities, disrupt agricultural activities, and destroy critical infrastructure

UMP Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Internalisation, Professor Aldo Stroebel and Chief Executive Officer of the WRC,  Dr Jennifer Molwantwa, sign the MoU  between the two institutions. The witnesses behind them are Dr Stanley Liphadzi (WRC),  Dr Salmina Mokgethle (UMP), Dr Bongiwe Mcata (UMP), and Dr Naledi Nthite (UMP).

WRC and UMP sign water and sanitation MoU

The agreement will help Mpumalanga province find sustainable solutions to its water challenges

Prof Timothy Dube, Director of the Institute for Water Studies at UWC.

The aqua innovator

Prof Timothy Dube harnesses AI to revolutionise water management

Gariep Dam in the Free State. File photo

Water shortages impact hydropower as energy solution

Water scarcity has rendered hydropower impractical, shifting focus to coal and nuclear energy

Crisis averted: A sign in a restroom helped promote the use of waterless hand sanitizer in Cape Town in 2018, during the worst drought on record
in the region after years of low rainfall. Authorities named 11 May as the infamous “Day Zero” when water would run out if reservoir levels kept
falling and consumption did not slow enough – but managed to avoid this because people changed their behaviour. Photo: Waldo Swiegers/Getty

Cape Town offers lessons on how to save water

Our water use is higher than the global average – and we need to fix infrastructure to reduce losses

Residents, community organisations and civil society groups across Johannesburg have united to demand urgent action to end the city’s deepening water crisis. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

SA needs clear law to protect strategic water source areas

Our government must accelerate efforts to formally protect the zones and introduce the necessary amendments in legislation

Scarce: People fill up water containers for home use from a well near Sudan’s most populous city, Omdurman, on 21 March, a day before Unesco’s World
Water Day, to focus attention on clean water and the sustainable use of water resources. Photo: Ashraf Shazly/Getty Images

Risk of water crisis looms – UN

Citizen activists have warned that the water situation in South Africa is ‘dire and precarious’

Water treatment plants, along with hospitals, harbours, railways and other critical infrastructure are supposed to be exempted from load-shedding in terms of national state of disaster regulations promulgated last month. (Photo by Sharon Seretlo/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
Video

Q&A: Collaboration needed as water treatment plants reach capacity

UCT’s Kevin Winter explains the dangers of poor management and how wastewater can be better utilised

Access to clean water saves lives – and money. (Photo: Mario Macilau)

Maputo, a city where it rains regularly but there are still water challenges

The Mozambican capital urgently needs adaptation strategies to deal with climate change-related issues

School children of St Juliet Primary School in Kibra getting water. The tank was installed by the Feed the Children programme.

Water shortage in Nairobi slum triggers extortion — and sextortion

Although Kenyans consider access to water a constitutional right, a vast majority are denied it in Kibera

Many large metros and municipalities are not prepared for extended electricity outages that disrupt the reliable supply of drinking water and sanitation services

In distress as South Coast stays dry six years on

Visitors packed up and left after finding no water in towns along the coast as businesses battle

Drilling for water in the Karoo where one major concern from fracking is that groundwater will be affected in the shale gas extraction process.

International community seeks to better tap into groundwater in 2022

Efforts are ramping up to make invisible water resources more visible in policy as a solution to drought and climate change

Mail & Gaurdian

Editorial: South Africa’s next big crisis is water

Amid rampant mismanagement and the effects of climate change, we will have to learn to do more with less

Elizabeth Wathuti

‘Open your hearts and act on climate crisis’ – Kenya’s Elizabeth Wathuti implores world leaders

More than two million people at risk of climate-related starvation in Kenya

Trouble: People are rescued from flooding in Lephalale. A climate change expert cautions that 3°C to 4°C of warming from 2041 to 2060 would be catastrophic for the area. Photo: Felix Dlangamandla/Gallo Images/Foto24

COP26: ‘We don’t want this terrible future’

Unless urgent action is taken, South Africa will suffer enormous socioeconomic and ecological harm from climate change in the next 50 years

South Africans on average know less about climate change than their counterparts in other African countries; it’s time this changed. (Photo: Jakub Wlodek/Agencja Gazeta via REUTERS)

Responding to the climate crisis

Carbon emmissions continue to soar, but the urgency of the moment is driving change around the world