SA could have no safe drinking water in 5 years…

South Africa could have no safe drinking water in five years - unless the crisis is addressed. That is the prediction from Dr Ferrial Adam, the Executive Manager of WaterCAN, an initiative of OUTA (Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse). She speaks to BizNews about the Department of Water and Sanitation reports that show that 46% of drinking systems don’t comply with microbiological standards, 67.6% of wastewater treatment works are failing, and 47.4% of our water is lost or unaccounted for. Considering that there was a 41% deterioration over nine years, we put it to Dr Adam that we could have no drinkable water in 10 years if it continued to deteriorate at that rate. “… if we carry on like that...I don't even think we'll have to wait for 10 years. I think it will be about five years, because once you reach a particular point, you know, a tipping point, it's just downhill from there and it's much faster. So I think that in terms of the quality of our drinking water, there definitely is a need to treat it as if there's a crisis.” - Chris Steyn