African Wildlife Environment Issue 75 FINAL

CONSERVATION

3. It is my professional opinion that WESSA is ideally placed to lead this conversation. It is therefore my intention to use this piece to call upon the WESSA membership to consider their position on this matter. They are members of a highly respected NGO, with membership across a range of professional fields, so they have an internal diversity of skills that can easily dive deeply into these complex matters and produce an opinion on this vexing issue. 4. At the heart of this endeavor we must never lose sight of two clear facts. The first is that we have a fundamentally water-constrained economy, and population growth will dictate the need to create jobs if social cohesion is to be maintained. This has profound implications for the environment, as we see playing out in the poaching arena. Poor people will degrade the environment just to survive. Secondly, we are seeing legislation that exists on paper, but is not being applied. The absence of enforcement means that the rule of law no longer exists, so we must make a hard choice, either enforce the law without fear or favour, or change the law if it is unrealistic or unworkable. References Davies, B.R., O’Keefe, J.H. & Snaddon, C.D. 1993 . A Synthesis of the Ecological Functioning, Conservation and Management of South African River Ecosystems. Water Research Commission Report No. TT 62/93. Pretoria: Water Research Commission. Dollar, E.S.J., Nicolson, C.R., Brown, C.A., Turpie, J.K., Joubert, A.R., Turton, A.R., Grobler, D.F., Pienaar, H.H., Ewart-Smith, J. & Manyaka, S.M. 2010. Development of the South African Water Resource Classification System (WRCS): A Tool Towards the Sustainable, Equitable and Efficient Use of Water Resources in a Developing Country . Water Policy. No. 12; Pp 479-499. NWRS . 2004. National Water Resource Strategy. Pretoria: D epartment of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF). http://www.dwaf.gov.za/ Documents/Policies/NWRS/Default.htm Puckridge, J.T., Sheldon, F., Boulton, A.J. & Walker, K.F. 1993. The Flood Pulse Concept applied to Rivers with Variable Flow Regimes. In Davies, et al ., 1993. A Synthesis of the Ecological Functioning, Conservation and Management of South African River Ecosystems. Water Research Commission Report No. TT 62/93. Pretoria: Water Research Commission.

must be rehabilitated to a defined level of ecological functionality. This factor must be considered in the Catchment Management Strategies (CMS) mandated by the Act. Each CMS must reconcile current and future water needs with actual water available, but always protecting ‘The Reserve’. This balances supply and demand, while enabling economic development and social stability, so it’s both a technical and a political process simultaneously. In 2004 the first National Water Resource Strategy (NWRS) was published, consistent with the NWA. This was the first time that a high confidence document was generated, using best available data, that took the Reserve into consideration. The findings of NWRS was that we had allocated 98% of all water available at that time, with some water management areas being over-allocated by as much as 120%. In effect, South Africa ran out of water in 2004, and from that moment on we became a fundamentally water constrained economy. Therefore we need an honest conversation about these inconvenient truths and what they imply, not only for those interested in wildlife and the environment, but also in the interest of social stability and economic health of the country. Here’s the essence of those inconvenient truths: 1. We now have a stark choice to make as a nation. Do we honour the NWA and support its core values about ecological integrity and restoration of aquatic ecosystems, or do we set those aside and watch idly as each river becomes an open sewer? 2. We are going to have to start talking about environmental rehabilitation and what that entails in terms of social stability and economic prosperity. We are going to have to ask ourselves if poverty is a greater threat to ecosystem health than the alternative, which is to embrace technology to generate ‘New Water’ thereby allowing ourselves to relieve the growing pressure on aquatic ecosystems? Floating scum on the Vaal River in the vicinity of the Riveria traps bubbles of gas arising from putrefying biomass. This is an indication of sewage flows into the river

Prof Anthony Turton Centre for Environmental Management University of the Free State

11 | African Wildlife & Environment | Issue 75 (2020)