A report released by the Water Research Commission of South Africa found that South Africa has 4% less water than 20 years ago.

Rand Water is predicting that demand for water in South Africa will outstrip supply by 2025. It also believes that Gauteng is potentially facing a water shortage as early as 2013.

In Cape Town the scenario is not much better with a water shortage prediction by 2016

If South Africans continue with their wasteful water practices, there simply will not be enough water to meet the country’s future needs and, we may have to start paying even more for water!
South Africans can change the scenario by changing their behaviour towards water usage and becoming water wise and savvy about rainwater harvesting.

Water Rhapsody can provide rain harvesting solutions as simple as a water tank and a filter, to our full blown Grand Opus system that also pumps rain water back into the home and only uses municipal water when the rain tanks are empty.

Already an absolute necessity in many towns along the Garden Route, the Eastern Cape and the West Coast of South Africa, rainwater harvesting is becoming an urban lifestyle trend. Water Rhapsody can provide rainwater harvesting solutions as simple as a tank and a filter, to our full blown Grand Opus system that also pumps rainwater back into the home and only uses municipal water when the rain tanks are empty. Request a quote on harvesting your rainwater by filling in the form:

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – South Africa will increasingly use desalinated seawater to meet growing demand for drinking water in coastal towns facing the worst drought in 150 years, the country’s water minister said on Thursday.

South Africa is a water-scarce country with an average rainfall of 450 millimetres — compared to a world average of 860 mm — and conditions are expected to worsen as a result of global climate warming.

“South Africa has a boundary consisting of approximately 3,000 kilometres of sea water, and this water is presently unusable because of its high salt content,” Water Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said in her budget vote speech on Thursday.

“We therefore made a decision to press ahead with unconventional water treatment, in this case desalination, largely because of the unavailability of river water due to drought,” she said.

Popular tourist coastal towns Plettenberg Bay, Knysna, George and Mossel Bay are facing severe water shortages due to prolonged drought in the southern Cape region.

These towns have turned to purifying seawater, as well as treating so-called grey water — waste water generated from domestic activities like laundry and bathing — to help meet their drinking needs.

Cape Town is also eyeing the option of desalinating water.

“Desalination has become the preferred purification option in terms of both the cost benefit and the flexibility of application,” Sonjica said.

However, she said the government needed to exercise caution in extending its desalination programme because of possible negative effects to the environment.

“There is ample scientific evidence that the impact of the effluents from the desalination plants on the seawater environment increase the seawater temperature, salinity, water current and turbidity,” said Sonjica.

Desalination is big business in the desert conditions of some Middle East countries, where it is a major supplier of clean drinking water to economic hubs such as Dubai.