#WaterCrisis: Why sustainability matters to all citizens

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As the clock ticks down to “day zero” in the City of Cape Town - the day when the taps run dry and water rationing becomes a reality - the prospect of a new dystopia is sinking in. Just when South Africans had managed to put the memories of load-shedding behind us, a countrywide drought took hold. In the Western Cape, drought has been ongoing for three years, and it has now reached crisis proportions. It is as though we are being sent a sign. We need to do more with what we have, and we have to conserve the precious resources we have better than we have before. Business-as- usual is no longer an option. These moments of crisis are forcing us to imagine and prepare for a new reality, one where resources become scarcer. Society, however, has proved slow to adapt to the new reality. It is quite normal for people to assume that things will continue as they have in the past. We are programmed to base our expectations on our observations of the past. Yet things are changing rapidly, not just in South Africa, but across the world. We are undergoing vast changes at a planetary scale and these changes are having real impacts at local levels. In the 21st century the demand for resources is growing rapidly due to population growth, urbanisation and rising living standards.

According to a recent BBC report, we would need just under four earths to meet all of humankind’s needs at US, Canadian or Swedish consumption levels.

Moreover, uncertainty about the availability and supply of resources is growing at the same time. Climate change, severe degradation of life-supporting ecosystems and increased global interconnectivity, contribute to the increased uncertainty of meeting demand and ensuring supply. These changes are exacerbating impacts of resource scarcity at local levels all over the world.

South Africa has existing resource limitations. Only 13% of South African land is arable.

It is also a water-scarce country that is vulnerable to drought. Electricity shortages reached crisis proportions a few years ago.

Water and electricity infrastructures are ageing, having been built in the 1970s, and their rehabilitation costs are exorbitant.

At the same time we face the challenge of connecting South Africans who previously had no access to infrastructure and services.

We are burning the candle at both ends. Add resource crises to this equation and the potential for collapse of existing systems increases.

Yet we don’t have to skirt so close to the edge of the abyss. Neither do we have to lurch from crisis to crisis and become stuck in reactive mode.

We can be proactive. We can formulate projections of future resource pressures and plan around them. We already have a considerable body of science to turn to, to help us prepare for potential climate change impacts.

These impacts range from drought to species migration and spatio-temporal changes in vegetation and soil, to increased extreme events such as cyclones, storm surges, heat-waves, heavy rainfall events, flooding and so forth.

We do not know exactly when and where these will occur, but we do know that the overall likelihood of these events occurring is higher, and that our future is more uncertain as a result.

We have to prepare society for a broader range of eventualities, a greater range of extremes, and improve our capacity to absorb external shocks. We have to make our society (and ecology) more "resilient" to climate change impacts and embrace ecologically regenerative practices.

We also have to make our society more resilient to potential resource scarcities. Whether we talk of drought, food insecurity, or shortages of phosphates (ie for fertilisers), rare earth metals, construction materials, minerals or raw materials, the consequences of living in a more globally interconnected world mean that when there are shortages elsewhere local prices are driven up and scarcity becomes a reality.

So how do we make ourselves more resilient to the tides of the 21st century? Thankfully the thinking, technologies, infrastructures and systems offerings that boost and ensure sustainability have been developing for three to four decades now. Some offerings are maturing.

For example, the renewable energies sector has grown spectacularly. The growth in green tech offerings and innovations is also impressive, and many countries around the world have adopted green economic growth strategies and policies.

Ethiopia and Rwanda are cases in point.

Moreover, our ability to re-think and re-engineer existing systems to make them more sustainable has advanced in leaps and bounds.

The thinking around sustainability is geared towards ensuring mutual social, economic and environmental sustainability. This means trade-offs will have to be made. Costs of sustainable developmental interventions may be higher at the outset. But what will the costs be of not preparing adequately? And who will bear these costs?

We know that we face a future where resource scarcity will become more commonplace. Failure to prepare will likely precipitate collapse, whether at local, regional or global scales. We need to begin making big decisions now to safeguard the future. The question is; who will take the lead?

* Dr Camaren Peter is a long-term sustainability researcher and expert, who has consulted extensively on policy and planning for sustainable development to the UN and similar development organisations over the past decade.

He will conduct a master class on sustainability innovations at Cornerstone Institute from November 22 until 24.

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.