The government is now being warned about a looming water crisis for South Africa in the same way that it was warned a decade ago about the present energy crisis, one of the country's top environmental organisations says.
The warning from World Wide Fund for Nature - South Africa (WWF-SA) is that 98 percent of available water resources are already fully utilised and the country could run out of water by 2025.
"This doesn't mean the taps will run dry, but that water-intensive industries won't be able to continue working as before and there may be water rationing," chief executive of WWF-SA Morne du Plessis told a media briefing at the Waterfront on Wednesday.
"And what we're saying about water today is what the energy people were saying to the government 10 years ago."
In a general briefing about the state of the global and local environments and the urgent need for a change in the behaviour of over-consumption, Du Plessis said there had been a lot of attention recently on the decaying state of South Africa's water infrastructure.
Last week the DA said it would ask questions in Parliament about a report by the National Nuclear Regulator that some of the country's water supply was being dangerously threatened by the seepage of poisonous mining chemicals and about inadequate spending on water and sewerage systems by local government.
Du Plessis said a more important concern was the proper protection of water catchment areas such as the Drakensberg mountains.
"Not a cent of our water bills goes to protecting water catchment areas. Taking responsibility for these areas is of paramount importance and we need to work collectively to resolve such issues."
The looming freshwater shortage and the present power supply crisis were early warnings that an urgent "reining in" of the use of natural resources was needed to avert the full impact of global climate change, Du Plessis said.
South Africa now had its best opportunity but within a rapidly narrowing timeframe to act decisively to prevent critical resource shortages that could dash hopes of sustained economic growth.
Even if people reverted to a "carthorse and candle" lifestyle, the Earth was committed to a 2 degres Celcious rise in average global temperatures because of past burning of fossil fuels and the emission of greenhouse gases, he said.
And South Africa had a particular responsibility because of this country's heavy reliance on energy derived from fossil fuels.
"Clearly we have a massive problem in terms of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels. What many South Africans don't realise is that our economy is extremely heavily carbon-based."
A "shocking" statistic was that, completely contrary to popular perception, on a per capita basis a South African produced 20 times more carbon dioxide per unit of GDP (gross domestic product) than his or her counterpart in the US.
This was because South Africa's economy was heavily dependent on the mining and industrial sectors, whereas the US had invested heavily in the service sector, which did not produce proportionately as many emissions.
South Africa was the seventh most intensive carbon economy per capita in the world, Du Plessis said.
"We are producing very, very expensive energy from a carbon perspective and that is something we absolutely have to deal with."
Decisions made now to refurbish mothballed coal-fired power stations to deal with the energy crisis would commit the country to another 40 or 45 years of related carbon emissions.
The impacts of this would be felt not by the present generation or even their children, but by their grandchildren, he said.
"That is a very unhealthy statistic."
But it was not all "doom and gloom", Du Plessis said.
Government policies underpinned the way in which resources were used and organisations such as WWF-SA, the media and individuals all needed to engage with the government to change policies to ensure an environmentally sustainable future.
"Efforts to stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature will only succeed if they are jointly undertaken by civil society, lawmakers and above all, by consumers."