Egypt’s fears about Ethiopia’s mega-dam haven’t come to pass: moving on from historical concerns
A new round of angry exchanges has broken out between Egypt and Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). On September 1, Cairo wrote to the UN …
Why full dams don’t mean water security: a look at South Africa
Mike Muller, University of the Witwatersrand After good summer rains, the dams that supply water to Johannesburg and much of South Africa’s economic heartland a…
Why South Africa needs a new water agency
In his State of the Nation Address in February 2021, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the establishment of a National Water Resources Inf…
Not all droughts are the same: here’s what’s different about them
There’s growing concern in South Africa about what’s being portrayed as “a national drought disaster”. There have been anxious suggestions that drought could se…
South Africa’s real water crisis: not understanding what’s needed
A serious multi-year drought in parts of South Africa’s Northern and Eastern Cape provinces has seen a number of small towns threatened by total water supply fa…
Panic over water in South Africa’s economic hub is misplaced
It has been a hot, dry October in much of the interior of South Africa. And the rains have started later than usual. So it was not surprising that alarm bells w…