Industrial Use of Water in South Africa

South Africa Water Use in Industry

South Africa is a well developed country that relies on its industry for large portions of its income. The largest portion of South Africa’s income comes from agriculture. With agriculture comes large amounts of water use. To grow crops, the need for water comes as a necessity. The distribution for water around the country is not even. The amount of water used for agriculture comes to around 60% of its total water use (Water Wise). This is over half of the countries total water use. This is such a big portion due to the fact that this is only one category of South African water use.The main use for water in the agriculture business comes from using it for irrigation. Since South Africa is not as developed as some nations the amount of water used by industry is not that high. Industry only accounts for about 8% of South African water use (Water Wise).

Water use around the world tends to follow a typical path. Developing countries and countries that may not have high amounts of income use most of their water for agriculture (Water Use). This makes sense because in most developing countries they focus on farming for food and income more than developed countries. In South Africa this is also true. We are not the most economically sound country and we focus on our agriculture for most of our food and income. Most developed countries like the United states tend to use their water more for industry. This also makes sense because so many benefits come from industry and those benefits tend to create a wealthier country in general.

The United states is an interesting country with regards to how they use their water. Unlike the other nations with high amounts of income who use their water mostly for industry, the U.S. has most of their water use go towards thermoelectric power (USGS). This takes up about 48% of the total water consumption in the United States (USGS). The next largest closet contributor to the U.S. water use is irrigation for agriculture. Irrigation uses about 34% of the total water consumption in the United States (USGS).

Municiple and Agricultural Water Use

With South Africa being a country that has a large number of people without access to clean drinking water, you can guess that the way water is transported to households is different from the U.S.  Urban areas of South Africa tend to have an easier access to clean water than rural areas. These rural areas are the major concern for future projects regarding drinking water in South Africa. Most of these rural areas have their water shipped in by trucks (Water Access). The rest of urban South Africa tends to have their water come through pipes that are hooked up to sanitation plants (Water Access).

Water use in South Africa per person is much less than that of the United States. The average house hold in South Africa uses about 250 liters of water a day (Aquarista). An average house hold in South Africa consists of 3 people. Compared to the United States in which one person uses about 100 gallons a day. This is a large difference, especially when you consider the data for South Africa is for 3 people.

South Africa does have quite of bit of dams and reservoirs but none of them are of great size and most them are located in the urban areas. Most of South Africa is full of water storage tanks (Aquadam). These tanks are considered reservoirs for water and are the main storage system for potable water in South Africa.

Food is very important to the culture of South Africa. The typical South African diet consists of meats and varieties of grains such as rice with an assortment of vegetables (South Africa). This is not much different from the typical American diet.

Energy in South Africa

South Africa is not known for its progress in the energy business. About 90% of South Africa’s total energy supply comes from burning coal (Energy). The other 10% of energy is produce by nuclear power and hydropower from dams (Energy). We as a country are very dependent on our coal energy. The next step for our country to focus on is how to gain energy from other sources. Coal is not the most environmentally friendly energy source. The energy consumption of South Africa is very low compared to the United States and other developed countries. The United States uses about 12,000 kWh per capita as compared South Africa which uses about 5,000 kWh per capita (Index Media).

Hydropower in South Africa is not very common. This is one thing that could make us less dependent on coal. We would become a cleaner nation if we focus on hydroelectricity as one of our main energy sources. The hydropower that we do have we import from other nations like Zimbabwe (Renewable Energy).

South Africa is the worlds leading nation when it comes to mining (South Africa). We as a nation are around fifth in the world for the largest mining sector with regards to GDP (South Africa). We have such a large variety of what type of mining we do. South Africa is one of the largest sectors of gold and diamond mining in the world (South Africa). These are by no means the only minerals that South Africa is known for. With the high demand that we have on coal, we as a nation must help ourselves fulfill that demand by mining for it. Coal is one of the main resources that South Africa mines for (South Africa). Although mining plays such a large role in the economy of South Africa it can also have negative effects on the water table. Mining is the fourth largest consumer of water in terms of volume in South Africa with about 236 million meters squared (Water SA). This is more than the amount used by industry in South Africa.

 (Water SA)

South Africa is definitely a country that is not caught up with some of the development of other nations in the world. We are clearly using water in a different way than other nations. We focus more on agriculture and our mining  rather than our industry and clean energy. As we continue to develop I feel that these focuses will begin to change and hopefully we will be following along the lines of becoming a environmentally friendly nation.