Abstract:
South Africa is over-exploiting its freshwater resources and water could
be a large constraint on the implementation of the National Development
Plan. Using the International Futures forecasting system, this paper models
and forecasts water demand and supply until 2035, the period covered by
the National Water Resource Strategy 2013. The authors’ research finds
that the gap between demand and supply increases and that the solutions
proposed by the Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation will not close
the gap without additional, aggressive measures. The authors propose such
measures for each sector of demand and each source of water supply.