Quenching our future thirst: Climate crisis demands a shared table for water

PLANET Earth is in the Anthropocene, an era during which we as a species have had a substantial impact on our only habitat.

- DR SHAFICK ADAMS

Despite the denialism and counter-information, we are in a new geological age characterised by the dominance of human activity reshaping the planet's systems, disrupting climates patterns, altering water cycles, and straining ecosystems whilst recalibrating economic spaces and decimating human settlements.

One area that everyone is paying attending to is water. Water, which remains a common dominator in the just transition, due to its multifaceted role in climate change mitigation, and its significance in adaptation strategies.

In many places, our water management architecture suffers from fragmentation and uneven implementation, inequitable resource allocation and chronic capacity constraints. As an example, South Africa's Strategic Water Source Areas (SWSAs), which provide 50% of the country’s surface water from only 10% of the land, suffer from weak coordination among institutions.

To address our challenges, we need to place water resources at the heart of all planning and ensure that any decisions taken that rely on the steady supply of water, both in quantitative and qualitative terms are done with current crisis in mind.

Water is an environmental, economic, and social imperative

While climate pressures are global, resilience is built locally within the daily decisions, trust networks, and adaptive capacities of communities. Effective management of our water is vital to securing South Africa's economic stability. We have better odds of success through fostering shared responsibility and collaboration across scales to enhances our collective capacity to safeguard ecosystems.