Nick Hedley | To tackle SA's looming water crisis, start with its toilets

In the face of a crisis like this, there are two things that we can do: Bolster the supply of water, and simultaneously reduce usage through efficiency gains. Unfortunately, inept career politicians are in charge of the supply side of things, says Nick Hedley.

Just as it seems that a resolution to the country's electricity crunch may be on the horizon, South Africa is now staring down the barrel of a crippling water crisis. Once again, negligent politicians are to blame.

The City of Johannesburg is in a particularly precarious situation. Thanks to endemic corruption and mismanagement, it doesn't have the R64 billion needed to maintain and fix its water grid. Many parts of the city are already feeling the impact of outages, which will only get worse as the network crumbles and leaks throughout the system worsen.