2. Case study: Zastron
Background
Zastron is a small agricultural town in the Free State province of South Africa, some 30km from the border of Lesotho. It is situated at the foot of Aasvoelberg (Vulture Mountain), named for the rare Cape vultures attracted by a feeding project a short distance out of town. The town was founded in 1876 on the farm Verlies Fontein, and named after the maiden name of President Brand's wife, Johanna Sibella Brand, nee Zastron. (Wiki, 2014)
Current situation
Zastron residents march for water.
Article: News24: 2014-03-05 22:42
Bloemfontein- Residents of Matlakeng is Zastron, Free State, marched to the Mohokare Municipality's offices on Wednesday to demand water, the Democratic Alliance said
"The...municipality was supposed to ensure that this right was upheld, but this was not the case here," DA Free State leader Patricia Kopane said.
Kopane handed over a memorandum to the municipality demanding answers as to why Matlakeng residents were struggling to access water daily.
"They have been struggling for more than five months."
The DA leaders said residents were forced to walk long distances to get water from town.
Kopane asked the municipality whether they could show residents any concrete plans about what they could do to alleviate water shortages.
The DA urged the municipality to release its strategy and action plan on water to the community.
An official received the memorandum on the municipality's behalf.
-SAPA
Read more on: da/Bloemfontein/service delivery/water
Policy Agenda Setting
According to (Cloete et al, 2006), Policy agenda settings refers to deliberate planning process through which policy issues are identified, problems defined and prioritized, support mobilized and decision maker...
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...nd took the legislative framework seriously, along with its people. Water is a limiting resource for development in Southern Africa and a change in water supply could have major implications in most sectors of the economy, especially in the agriculture sector. (Mukheibir & Sparks, 2003) Thus, the formulation of the IWRM policy has genuine involvement of communities and people at the level of the local communities in the elimination/combating of water scarcity and management of water resources and climate changes, so that they can conserve, develop and manage the water resource at the level itself. There is a continuing rise in the rate of water demand, not only in Zastron but across the whole nation and even though we are far from achieving our policy objectives, the fact that the situation has been recognized is already progress to a better, sustainable environment
First off, as a corporation handling a towns water systems, it is the duty of the individuals within the company to take care of the water in a responsible
Corral-Verdugo, V. et.al. . (2002). Residential water consumption, motivation for conserving water and continuing the tradgedy of the commons. Environmental Management, Vol. 30 Number 4.
... upon solution to water access disagreements, social and political powers must be willing to compromise since the risks associated with disagreements regarding water allocation may be too great. As stated by Shiyyab (2004), “If sustained over a period of time, these problems will directly affect social harmony, domestic stability and eventually, regional peace.” (p. 30). Investments must be made by industry as well as local and national governments for purification of wastewater so that clean water, when needed, will be available. The necessity of obtaining water is a fundamental human right and,
Caused by climate change and urbanization, water shortages are a major concern of the Mexican government at both the local and federal level. Mexico City, the third largest city in the world with more than twenty million inhabitants, struggles with water scarcity because of the potential risk it poses to the wellbeing of its citizens. Similar to the situation in other megacities, such as Jakarta and Bangkok, Mexico City’s water supplies are being depleted because of a growing urban population. (CBC News , 2009 ) Unable to sufficiently supply the increasing population size of the city, the water in the Mexico Valley aquifer is being drawn out faster than the aquifer’s recharge rate. Exacerbated by the fragmented nature of Mexico’s political culture, the exploitation of Mexico City’s water resources due to a growing urban population is detrimentally degrading the environment and creating a self-perpetuating problem that places the city and its inhabitants at risk.
The lack of water has caused an increased demand in the drilling of wells, which create even more problems with water shortage. “‘ If you own your own property, you can dig a well and you can pump as much groundwater as as you a want…” (Source 3). This shows the problem of over usage of what little water there is. The wells dug at the edge of properties drain and steal water from the surrounding estates. By doing this, you do not know the amount being drained from the aquifer. “‘Groundwater is like a bank account. You can’t take out more than you put in on an ongoing basis,’” (Source 3). The unwatched drainage of water by farmers can empty out an entire aquifer if it is not filled back
There is not an answer to the water problems here in Texas or even anywhere
California is a large state with an increasing population, which results to increased use of resources, especially water for human consumption, industrial uses and irrigation. However, water has become a scarce resource in California with poor communities suffering the most from the shortage. Therefore, through public policy the state government sought a solution to the issue. As a result, it led to the adoption of the recycled water policy on 3 February 2009 (Martineau, 2013). The policy aims at providing reliable and clean water supply for the state. In addition, the policy conserves the availability of fresh water sources by reducing consumption of potable water. The policy has three goals. The first goal is to increase the use of storm water by at most 500,000 acre-feet by 2020 and one million acre-feet by 2030 (Heineman et al., 2001). Secondly, it is to increase recycled water over by at least one million acre-feet by 2020 two million acre-feet by 2030. Thirdly, by 2020, it aims at increasing water conservation by 20%, especially for industrial and urban uses (Heineman et al., 2001). The methodology utilized for execution and approval of this policy was systematic. Initially, the state consulted experts in diverse areas such as water conservation experts, financial experts and other relevant players. It is important because it assisted in drafting the guidelines and rules in the policy. Furthermore, the analysis of the current problem will occur at this point. The second step was conducting a referendum where the public will pass the policy in order for the state to legalize it. During this stage, there will be an evaluation regarding the costs of the problem. The final phase is to authorize a perti...
* Develop a regional land-use plan in collaboration with local communities, local governments, ministry officials, non-governmental organizations and universities.
Water purification and a wastewater treatment plants would be necessary in order to provide the citizens and visitors with clean healthy water. To prevent flooding, this city was built on flood plains.
The solution found by planners to varied situations in practice very dependent on the certain criteria like social, economic, environmental, and political. The evaluation of a solution on these criteria defines the success of a solution.
One main causes of water scarcity is water mismanagement worldwide. Water mismanagement has become a crisis of governance that will impact heavily ...
Informing the community would be done by providing and alarming the community about the development plan by presenting it in brochures, leaflet, news releases and websites to create awareness. The information sending out to the people on the development plan should be simple, straight forward and easy to understand.
As of this year, nearly 1.1 billion people live without clean drinking water and 2.6 billion live without adequate water sanitation. The McDonald's down the street, however, will sell you a 1/3 pounder burger for only 150 gallons. Changes in lifestyle can easily reduce this number and help not only save water, but money as well. Currently, with our diminishing water supply, one of the main goals of humanitarian organizations is ensuring that everyone has the right and equality to water. With global access to water, it reduces the responsibility for political tension between countries fighting to literally stay alive.
In this essay I will share my thoughts on our water problems and some possible solutions for those problems.
In an age when man has forgotten his origins and is blind even to his most essential needs for survival, water along with other resources has become the victim of his indifference. South Africa, one of the most advanced countries in Africa, with a thriving economy based on technology and agriculture, is currently facing a downward slope in terms of water availability.