South Africa: Seizing opportunity From danger in dealing with water crisis

'Water management in South Africa is in serious crisis. Consumers were recently told to wash their fruit and vegetables as they could be infected by disease causing E. coli microbes because the crops were irrigated with water contaminated by sewage,' writes Glenn Ashton on the website of the South African Civil Society Information Service. 'Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) is killing not just crocodiles but entire riverine eco-systems. Our dams, rivers and streams are becoming ever more stressed due to the low flows of water that remain in them because of illegal over-abstraction for irrigation and contamination by poorly maintained sewage works.'