Minister: Climate change threatens 4 mln South Africans

The threat of climate change could imperil an estimated 4 million South African citizens who are still without access to potable water, the country's Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Ms. Buyelwa Sonjica said this week.

Speaking at a Water Summit in Durban in Kwa Zulu-Natal Province on Nov. 2, Sonjica said climate change would impact future availability and that government was, therefore, giving emphasis to both mitigation and adaptation strategies.

"Climate change is considered to be one of the most serious threats to sustainable development, with adverse impacts expected on the environment, human health, food security, economic activity and investment, natural resources and physical infrastructure. We are also as a country, threatened by drastic change in temperatures and weather patterns through climate change," she said.

South Africa is a dry country, where the average annual rainfall of about 464mm (compared to a world average of about 860mm) obscures vast range of figures. Some places may not see rain at all for a year or more. The country is classified as semi-arid.

Sonjica said, "As government, we believe that arming our communities with empowering information on how to stop climate change in its tracks is but one part in a bouquet of interventions that we must pursue."

Announcing the establishment of a cleaning and greening initiative called Buyisela (which means giving back or restoring), she said projects like this at the community level, where the impacts of climate change are most visible, have the most impact in terms of adapting to climate change, but also because everyone has the right to be aware of the consequences of climate change and take the necessary actions for the greater good of the community.

At the same time, the South African government is actively contributing to controlling green house gases and curbing biodiversity loss through greening programs.

"We will not be able to provide clean, reliable water and good sanitation facilities to our people if we do not ensure that the resource itself is protected, allocated and managed efficiently. We must also ensure that the past inequities in the allocation of water resources and access to services are redressed as speedily as possible," said the minister.

Sonjica emphasized the need for the judicious use of water and the enforcement of a Water Conservation and Demand Management (WC/DM) system by all water users through all sectors. In some areas of the country, the water losses are as high as between 35 percent and 40 percent, she said. Causes for these losses include poorly maintained infrastructure.

Source: Xinhua