“When we are experiencing major outages in our offices and our retail centres, it’s worse than load-shedding in that staff go home; you can’t switch on a generator.”
So says Johann Nell, head of development and industrial asset management at Redefine, a property titan, in a frank assessment of this existential challenge.
Water scarcity in our country is no mere abstraction. It’s a stark reality. As we grapple with this challenge, it becomes increasingly difficult to refute Nell’s implicit call that our water woes demand urgent action. But let’s not merely nod in agreement; let’s raise our voices for better governance, even as we acknowledge our nation’s water scarcity.
Our water infrastructure limps along. Neglect chips away at the foundations, while demand surges with population and urbanisation. Remember Cape Town’s near brush with day zero? Gauteng, too, grapples with resource mismanagement, leaving residents and businesses frustrated.
Redefine is the latest to sound a clarion call. It warns that water outages in the province, SA’s economic heartland, pose a greater threat to business operations than load-shedding. Imagine the implications: commercial buildings are rendered uninsurable due to unreliable water supply. Fire safety systems compromised, insurers wary.
Let’s demand investment, accountability and transparency. Our water-scarce land is crying out for visionary leadership.
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