Deepening water crisis in South Africa threatens national food security

Community organizer and feminist activist Anriette Abrahamse from Bonteheuwel on Cape Flats noted that the problem facing many working-class people is not a lack of solutions, but a lack of political will. She stated that the government knows perfectly well what needs to be done, but this will is absent, arguing that community concerns about basic services are too often ignored.

Referencing the quarantine experience during Covid-19, Abrahamse explained how residents turned to community gardens after it became clear that food parcels were not a sustainable solution. They occupied unused land, relying on the older generation to teach the youth farming and reviving traditional water-saving methods to sustain the gardens under limited resources.

According to Nkosinathi Swartbuy from Movement4Care, water is not just an environmental issue, but an issue of inequality. Swartbuy argued that access to water, much like access to housing, is still determined by apartheid-era spatial planning and economic inequality. He emphasized that where people live continues to determine the quality of services they receive, from water supply and sanitation to life-improving opportunities.

Citing the Constitutional Court's victory in the Tafelberg housing complex case, Swartbuy stated that the government is responsible for using state lands and resources to gradually realize the constitutional rights of citizens. He noted: 'Water, like housing, has become a commodity. Access to water is determined not only by your race, but by your class.' He also stressed that the fight for water is inseparable from the fight for decent housing and basic services. Swartbuy warned that if the issue of inequality is not resolved, many communities will continue to face obstacles in accessing water, sanitation, and food security, even while living in one of the country's wealthiest cities.

Independent filmmaker Miki Redelinghuys recounted that the fight for water during the Covid-19 quarantine exposed inequalities that many Cape Town residents faced long before the pandemic. Speaking at the Water and Food Indaba, Redelinghuys shared insights from filming the Reclaim the City movement in her film Mother City. She recalled how volunteers weekly delivered five-litre containers of water to settlements in the city center after authorities cut off water and electricity, demonstrating how communities stepped up where the state failed.

Reflecting on the strongest moment of the documentary, Redelinghuys quoted Nkosinathi Swartbuy from Movement4Care: 'Covid did not create inequality. It did not create the abuse of black bodies. It simply revealed what already existed.' Redelinghuys noted that the pandemic highlighted the sharp contrast between different communities: 'While people in the suburbs exchanged recipes, people in townships worried about where they would get their next meal.'