Litnet

"By withdrawing the United States (US) from the global Paris Agreement, Trump is defying multilateral climate resilience cooperation, at a time when global average temperatures already exceed a critical 1,5°C warming threshold, and severe weather events are becoming more regular."

"Over the past few weeks water services in Cradock in the Eastern Cape highlighted the plight of small towns when these services fail. It is reminiscent of a water sector adage that 'the problem is not the pipes; it’s the institutions that manage the pipes'."

"This presents you with an important entry point at the outset of your new assignment, demystifying the notion that only new infrastructure can solve the problems of limited access."

"But suddenly the agenda has become denser and more complex. International issues, bad old South African racial politics, and opportunistic political engineering have all made an appearance. So let’s pinpoint some of the key issues."

"Even the water sector reform after the political transition of 1994 has largely stuck to the direct municipal WSS delivery model from the apartheid era. A major difference, though, is that post-apartheid municipalities took on responsibility for service delivery in areas that had never been as well connected and managed as the previous white-only areas. This still hinders the bridging of these gaps."

"Widespread municipal corruption, management failures, poor skills and continual disruptions raise serious questions about the prospects of municipalities or other public bodies sustainably delivering better services. Meanwhile, National Treasury has often cited ineffective grant utilisation by municipalities as a key reason for why water finances have not reached local low-income groups."

"Although water and sanitation service delivery is a local government function in South Africa, it will likely be – like electricity supply – much more prominent in voters’ minds in the upcoming May 2024 national and provincial elections. Voter frustrations about the state of these services recently have boiled over in numerous locations, and may well influence how people vote at national and provincial level."

"For months now, the water and sanitation (WSS) unit of eThekwini (Durban) municipality has been in the news for all the wrong reasons."

"In contrast to the joint engagement in the 1990s of at least the major political protagonists, it is telling that the scenario process on which this book is based seems markedly less rooted in dialogue among political parties."

Gedagtes na ’n regeringbestekopname van water en sanitasie in Suid-Afrika: "Ten spyte van sentrale-regering-ondersteuning aan munisipaliteite, dui die Drop-verslae aan dat die volumes en kwaliteit van waterdienste steeds afneem en dat fundamentele hervorming nodig is om die probleme onder die knie te kry."

"There is rich nuance in Tanya Zack’s flowing, sensitive narrative and Mark Lewis’s striking photography. The stories they tell are deeply human and individualised, yet cleverly interwoven within Johannesburg’s broader racial, social and economic anomalies."

Suid-Afrika sit skielik met ’n choleraprobleem, en dit ná ons vir baie jare van die skoonste water van alle lande in ons krane gehad het. Freek Robinson gesels met Chris Heymans om te verstaan wat lande soos Indië en Etiopië skynbaar reg doen, maar ons nie.

"Encouragingly, we can learn from some successful experiences in this field right here on Cape Town’s doorstep. The first is Windhoek, which has been making use of recycled water for some 50 years now, and has become a world leader in this practice."

"One lesson is that no amount of investment in water infrastructure, by itself, can root out water shortage. The dramatic growth in Las Vegas’s population and tourism industry over recent decades has stretched the city’s allocation from the Colorado River – which it shares with several states and other cities – as well as its available groundwater reserves. It remains vulnerable, but drastic changes in its approach to water management have helped the city avoid running out of water."

"The apartheid legacy does still haunt the nation, and seems set to continue doing so for a while."