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dam-l DSM and LHWP/LS
>12 March 1998 'Demand management' needed for water
>
>Josey Ballenger
>
>WATER demand management needs to come into greater play to use the
>scarce resource efficiently and save on capital expenditure, water
>experts say. "There is no question we are still being driven by
>supply-side management. It is a circular argument that we do not know
>how much we can conserve, so we build more dams and manage supply,"
>said Guy Preston, special adviser to Water Affairs Minister Kader
>Asmal. "We need to break that cycle." George Constantinides, Rand
>Water's demand manager, said at a Sandton conference yesterday that
>demand management should be seen as an alternative investment.
>Spending R1bn on retrofitting less efficient appliances and fixing
>leaky pipes, for example, would save R3bn in consumption. Rand Water
>figures show domestic and network leaks account for 10% and 14% of
>consumption respectively, and a survey the utility conducted three
>years ago showed 50% of Sowetan households had plumbing problems,
>leaking an average 36Kl a month. "We can get significant savings from
>delaying schemes. We can put that money into other, more important
>social things," Preston said.Constantinides said the nation's largest
>water supplier "definitely believes that we could even drop supply by
>40%" and therefore delay Vaal River system projects "by years".
>Between March 1997 and April this year, the price of water for Rand
>Water consumers almost doubled to R1,08/Kl because of capital
>investments, including the Lesotho Highlands water project. He said
>the value of delaying capital investment, particularly in an
>environment of declining real interest rates, translated into savings.
>Delaying the next phase of the Lesotho project - the Mohale dam -
>would mean a "conservative" annual R800m savings, including operating
>costs, at 6% interest. However, Preston said the Lesotho project was
>"water under the bridge" as political considerations had to be taken
>into account. The two experts emphasised the need for a "block rate"
>tariff system that would allow poor consumers to have a "lifeline"
>supply, normal users to pay marginally more, and upper "luxury" users
>to swing the cost of future dams. "You cannot have social justice with
>a flat rate tariff," Preston said.
>
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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