Although government seems confused as to whether the current drought merits water restrictions - think load shedding, but drier - or not, there is no doubt this is a national problem.
South Africa is stuck in the midst of the worst drought for at least 23 years, and some say this is the worst it has been for at least three decades.
And it doesn’t look like it will abate any time soon, if the notoriously fallible SA Weather Service can be believed. The next few days show no sign of the heat wave abating.
This particular heat wave seems to have sounded like a trumpet call the moment the inland provinces hit Spring, because temperatures started climbing then.
I recall remarking early in Spring that we were all headed for a December with temperatures above 40 degrees. How wrong I was; we’ve hit more than 40 in some places already.
And those afternoon thunderstorms that were a pattern of many of our youths - let me not age myself, but it was quite some time ago - those seem long gone.
Currently, El Niño is being blamed, with experts saying the weather system - caused by a warming of ocean surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific every few years - looks like it will extend into next autumn.
That’s a heck of a long way away.
Its effects have already been felt locally, with crop forecasts falling and concerns abounding that the country will have to be a net importer of wheat, a stable diet for many South Africans.
Although SA is the 30th-driest nation on Earth, with high evaporation levels caused by the sunny climate, we are not the only country facing a dilemma.
El Niño has choked Singapore with smoke, triggered Pacific typhoons and left Vietnamese coffee producers nervous. In Argentina, farmers are expecting lower milk production, while Californians are staring at the sky, believing that rain is finally en route.
The problem with El Niño is that it simply causes widespread mayhem; a situation of either feast or famine. Or in the current case, flood or drought.
The last time the world saw such a bad El Niño was in 1997/8, which led to floods, fires and droughts that took the lives of about 30 000 people and caused $100 billion in damages.
Leaving it too late
However, if scientists are to be believed, this weather pattern can - with some degree of accuracy - be predicted.
Even though the weather service would be better served looking out the window than at charts when making predictions, surely even it can anticipate that there will be periods of weather disruption?
After all, unusual weather has been a regular hallmark since the Ice Age. And with all our technology, you would think we would be better prepared?
Alas, as with Eskom, key state infrastructure such as pumps and dams have been neglected.
Water pipes, likewise, burst without warning, leaving craters in the middle of our roads, and residents needing boats to get to work.
And that is an unacceptable situation, because we are wasting a precious, dwindling resource. Burst water pipes that take days to repair amount to the same thing as flushing millions of rands down the loo.
As does leaving dams and pumping stations to the point where what little water we have trickles away and doesn’t get to where it needs to be.
Farmers are facing severe losses, and industry that relies on water as much as it does on power has a big problem too. And all this is happening at a time when we really need to grow the economy.
You know, so that jobs can be created - not lost - and people don’t have to live below the breadline. And can have loos that flush, with water to flush them.
Granted, SA needs to watch where it spends the money - but I’d say maintenance at regular, scheduled, intervals and not on an emergency basis, is the way to go.
* Nicola Mawson is the online editor of Business Report. Follow her on Twitter @NicolaMawson or Business Report @busrep.
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