Longtime Reader Jack B. sends me this little snippet with the comment that it should perhaps be filed under “Africa Wins Again”:
Much of the domestic water supply here depends on electricity to pump it from the source to the vast high plain on which the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria sit.
South Africa’s recent electricity woes – with regular lengthy scheduled blackouts – have had a knock-on effect on the supply of water.
“All of our stations, they need electricity, they need power. You have to pump water everywhere where it is needed,” says Sipho Mosai, the head of state-owned Rand Water, one of the country’s main water providers.
“Electricity is really at the heartbeat of what we do and if we don’t have it externally, at least for now, it becomes a problem.”
“At least for now.” The perfect African answer to an immediate problem which if left unresolved will result in the usual African catastrophe.
Filed under “Africa Wins Again”?
So mote it be.
If you follow the link, you will note that the obligatory dig at “the wealthy” and the concomitant reference to “inequality” occur quite late in the piece, but it’s all there nevertheless. Sic semper BBC.
Remind me, how much water gets lost to leaks? Both accidental and deliberate.