Looking beyond the brink of water and crises! What crises, really?

Inaugural lecture--Chemistry Department, University of Johannesburg, 21 September 2011Globally, water related matters tend to take centre stage because while mankind can do without electricity as a form of energy source, one would never survive after a prolonged period without water. To illustrate the point, healthy adults and children can live only up to ten and five days, respectively, without water, but without food it is possible to survive for several weeks. Water may not necessarily be equated to bread but it constitutes a large percentage of the human body. The body needs water to support a lot of chemical processes within itself, to absorb beneficial nutrients, to excrete waste and to maintain the core body temperature through sweating. So much has been written and debated regarding water quality and scarcity globally and more importantly in South Africa. The voices being heard have predominantly been those of the articulate social scientists who have a greater appeal to the print and electronic media. Is there empirical data and scientifically tested evidence to suggest that South Africa should now start pressing “water crises” panic buttons? The scientists’ and engineers’ voices have been largely shrouded, masked and even, in many cases, “loudly” unheard in the entire discourse and we, the University of Johannesburg’s Water Research group, have been doing most of the talking in the laboratories in a desperate effort to answer these burning questions but, needless to say, there are still lots of questions that are begging for answers! Taking a short trip to memory lane, we recall a “load shedding” energy crises but the question that lingers in most people’s minds, with climate change impact taken into account, is whether or not a water crises is looming. In the lecture, the current state of affairs will be discussed and more importantly, we expose the opportunities for research at present and in the immediate future