TITLE:
Fueling Water-Intensive Economic Growth: What Hope for Water Conservation?
AUTHORS:
Ola Busari, Jeremiah Mutamba
KEYWORDS:
Demand Management, Economic Development, South Africa, Water Conservation
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.3 No.6,
August
25,
2015
ABSTRACT: In virtually every country has strategies
for pursuing greater broad-based economic growth and fighting poverty and
inequality that underscore the pivotal role of water, including its
availability in reasonable quantity and desired quality. While GDP growth in
South Africa slowed down from 2.2% in 2013 to 1.5% in 2014, and while there are
suggestions that current growth drivers are weak and inflation drivers strong,
hopes remain for moderate economic growth of upwards of 2.5% going forward.
Aside from stabilizing power supply and securing an upward movement in consumer
confidence, such optimism rests on the return of mining and manufacturing
activities to their previously high levels, with implications for water
requirements. Growing demand for water-intensive growth will be occurring side-by-side
with the expanding needs of urbanization and social advancement, in the face of
an increasing threat of climate change, recurring droughts, environmental
pollution and limited accessible water resources. Effective reconciliation of
the demand and supply of water would require the strengthening of water
conservation and demand management beyond their currently low to moderate
levels, calling for a paradigmatic shift in approaches to water management,
sound appreciation of the potential benefits vis-à-vis the allocation of
requisite resources and firm political leadership and support.