The South African government received quite a pleasant surprise when it deposited some cash for drought relief in areas badly struck by the drought, and invited the public to contribute.

The public poured millions into the fund, which goes to show how much we all care for one another when any fellow South Africans are in trouble. The authorities have said that some of the money will be used to develop infrastructure for water supply.

There have also been pictures in the newspapers of people donating bottles of water to various collection points set up by a variety of charities and other sympathetic people. The public is generally wonderful in cases like this.

I myself was involved in flood relief some years ago. I was then a member of the outstanding charity organisation, Round Table. Flood waters poured through areas of KwaZulu-Natal, and our fellow Round Table clubs in the area called us and said that they were trekking through mud, feeding people and giving them clothes.

We put an appeal into the Pretoria News and said that, if anybody had anything to donate, “drop it off at the chairperson’s house”. The response was staggering. People turned up with brand-new sleeping bags still in plastic wrappers. Others brought loads of canned food. To cut a long story short, over the following few days, we sent four large furniture removal vans, full of relief aid, to KwaZulu-Natal. The first donated items were in the hands of the needy in 48 hours, and the donations kept flowing.

The chairperson’s house was so full of food and clothes that they could not even get into the rooms. I had to do duty there, on a roster, and literally from dawn until well after dark there was a constant stream of people pouring into the house to drop off donations.

So, the public can be wonderful, like now, with the drought response.

In reference to the hot, dry conditions, and lack of rain, the authorities have been telling people not to let taps run while you wash hands or brush teeth, and have also been saying that homeowners must mend any dripping taps.

That message is fine under the current circumstances, but it does sound a bit like bunkering down for war. But another message that is really dumb is when some folks have made statements like: “The next World War could be over water.” Oh yeah! So we could go to war with Rwanda or, perhaps, Angola, and, if we win, we then send thousands of tankers up there and take all their water until their rivers run dry? And we end up owning all their water? Come off it. Water wars are bunk. Yes, maybe a border skirmish over someone taking too much out of a river that crosses the border, but no more than that.

But we now need to look to the future. Where is the next big government plan to build mighty new dams, or what? Can we build dams? Are there places to dam? I wonder. We are a water-poor country; so, we do not have many, or any, places to dam.

For a dam, you need a strongly flowing water supply, plus geographic features where it is possible to build a dam wall. These two are difficult to find on their own, let alone together. The obvious ones were used years ago.

Decades ago, a famous physics professor in the UK called his department together and said: “Gentlemen, we have run out of money, so now we have to think.”

The South African government and the people are now in that position with respect to water. We need to look to doubling the national water supply. There is going to be major growth in demand. More rain will not magically fall in years to come.

While a charitable response in the case of drought is wonderful for national pride and morale, it is not the solution to long-term planning. We are going to have to pump the sea inland – maybe. South Africa actually has an infinite supply of water, but the snag is that it is in the ocean.
People have tried towing icebergs from the Antarctic. There is underground water, which could possibly be brought to surface.
So what do we do next? As the physics professor said, it is now time to use brains to find a real solution.