Johannesburg, September 25: South Africa’s natural water resources are declining, the Cape Times reported on Friday, quoting from a study released this week.
“With each of the national water studies carried out since the 1950s, our estimate of the country’s total natural water resources has declined,” project director Brian Middleton told the newspaper.
“If we were allocating water according to the higher estimates made in previous studies, we would find that there is simply not enough water available to meet our needs.”
The Water Resources of SA 2005 study, which was commissioned in 2004 but the results released only this week, said South Africa had even less water available than was initially estimated.
Some 98% of surface water is already allocated for use in South Africa, and the climate is expected to become even hotter and drier.
—Agencies