Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) – partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 14 August 2010

If urgent steps are not taken, South Africa will run out of water for future economic growth within the next five years.

This is among several alarming expert opinions contained in the second edition of “The Environmental Handbook: A Guide to Green Business in South Africa”, launched in Cape Town this week.

In a guest foreword to the publication, WWF SA chief executive Morne du Plessis warns that water availability is one of the “decisive factors” that will affect the country’s economic development.

“At current consumption rates, our demand will outstrip supply by 2015,” he says.

The handbook is published by consulting and research organisation Trialogue, which specialises in areas of sustainable business and corporate social investment.

Global warming

The latest edition focuses on global warming, and was coincidentally released on a day when local newspapers were highlighting one of its more dramatic global effects: a 260 square kilometre slab of ice which has broken off the Greenland icecap.

The handbook notes the effects of climate change and increasing water stress are now being felt in South Africa.

“We’re already at crux point with water, with only 2% of our supply in reserve – and, unlike the energy situation, there is no alternative to the resource we’re using,” it says. Continue reading South Africa out of water within 5 years