A clean and adequate water supply is ranked the highest concern for cities around the world.  This has emerged at the World Cities Summit 2010, being held in Singapore.

The Summit is touted as one of the strategic platform where leaders, policy makers and solution providers can exchange best practices.  Who is looking strategically at water quality and quantity in South Africa, and ensuring that plans are implemented to safeguard the country and its people?

Andrew Tan, the CEO if Singapore's National Environment Agency said "With major cities around the world facing the pressures of growing urbanisation, it is vital that governments, business and communities work together to address the issues of growth, liveability and sustainability"

City of Gold

Johannesburg and the gold mining reef stretching from West Rand to East Rand, faces additional water quality problems.

The well-publicised issue of Acid Mine Drainage adds to the woes of water management.  Activists like Mariette Liefferink of the Federation for a Sustainable Environment have directed the media spotlight onto an issue that may have slipped quietly into South Africa's water courses.

Instead the public is now sensitised to the risk and consequence of untreated mine water with a pH equivalent to battery acid, seeping into dams, streams and agricultural irrigation systems.

The public is also very aware of the many and widespread instances of raw sewage, or poorly treated sewage, contaminating water courses.

On both these issues, the public is no longer apathetic or ill-informed, and there is pressure of government to respond adequately to the concerns.

Will South Africa have enough water?

However, the bottom line is a concern for the quality of water, and the quantity of water in South Africa.

The Business Day has highlight in an article "Call to defuse toxic mining water time bomb" that the attention and effort of the Department of Water Affairs may be split.  Calls for solutions to the most pressing water quality problems may be detracting from attending to the overall function of ensuring quality and quantity of water for the country.

The article quotes Mike Muller, a registered engineer and professor of public and development management, warning that the focus on AMD risks distracting the country from dealing with water pollution from inadequately maintained sewage works.  He says this poses an immediate risk to downstream users.

He adds that the media coverage on AMD is "heavily influenced by interest in mining and water treatment industries which stand to profit by exaggerating the problem".

It is true that with the outcry for something to be done, millions of rands of government funding has been diverted to cover costs of pumping and treating water.  Ownerless or abandoned mines adds to the burden of the state.

Muller says that some of mitigation of the AMD problem is possible by reducing the amount of surface water making its way into the mine shafts.

Others, like Chris Herold of the South African Institute of Civil Engineers, are concerned for the quantity of water available. The demand on water grown every year while planning for the future water needs has been based on achieving a 15% SAVING on demand.  This is not being realised.

South Africa, pick your poison.  Sewage infested water, unusable acid water filled with heavy metals, or insufficient water.  Or, there is always the complex cocktail of all of the above.