27 March 2025: As we mark another National Water Week against the backdrop of worsening water shortages across South Africa, we must confront the uncomfortable truth: despite years of well-intentioned awareness campaigns, our national water crisis continues to deepen. In his recent State of the Nation Address, President Ramaphosa emphasised that ensuring a secure and reliable water supply across the country is an urgent priority, acknowledging what many South Africans experience daily as taps run dry in cities, towns, and informal settlements.
South Africa’s water challenges are multilayered and complex. As a naturally water-scarce nation with rainfall well below the global average, we face increasing pressure from climate change, which has triggered more frequent and intense droughts in some areas and devastating floods in others.
If current trends continue, experts warn that South Africa could face a 17% water supply deficit by 2030. Yet, despite these alarming statistics, water conservation often remains a secondary concern for many South Africans. Standard conservation messages—such as turning off taps while brushing teeth, taking shorter showers, and fixing leaks—while sound advice, are insufficient to drive the large-scale behavioural change required. South Africa doesn’t need more awareness; it needs education that contextualises water conservation within people’s lived experiences. We must move beyond telling people what to do and instead help them understand why water conservation matters—personally, economically, and socially.
Cape Town’s Success: A Model for Actionable Education
Cape Town’s response to its water crisis demonstrated the power of this approach. By communicating honestly about the severity of the situation, providing specific and practical guidance, and fostering a sense of shared responsibility, the city achieved a remarkable 50% reduction in water usage within three years.
The Collective Impact of Conservation: Small Actions, Big Results
While much of the focus is on fixing failing infrastructure or regulating industrial water use, collective conservation efforts by individuals, families, and communities can significantly alter South Africa’s water trajectory. Cape Town’s dramatic reduction in consumption—from 1.2 billion litres per day to nearly half that amount—was not achieved through infrastructure improvements alone but through millions of residents adopting new water saving habits.
Public participation in conservation isn’t merely symbolic; it delivers measurable results. A typical household that installs water-efficient fixtures, fixes leaks, and adopts water-wise practices can reduce its water consumption by up to 50%. Now, multiply that across millions of households, and the impact becomes transformative. For example, a single leaking toilet can waste up to 100,000 litres of water annually. Fixing such leaks in just 10% of South African homes would save billions of litres each year. When businesses implement water conservation measures, the scale of savings increases exponentially.
These conservation efforts aren’t just a way to delay the inevitable—they create crucial breathing room, allowing water infrastructure investment to catch up. However, for this to work, water conservation education must be tailored to different contexts. For someone in an informal settlement, being told to turn off the tap while brushing their teeth is meaningless—they may not even have a tap. However, helping them understand how reporting a leak in a communal tap can improve water pressure and reliability makes conservation relevant. Similarly, showing small business owners how water shortages could disrupt operations makes them more likely to act, as they see the clear economic impact. The Financial Sector’s Role in Water Education – Financial institutions are uniquely positioned to support water education in several ways:
Leading by Example:
FNB has implemented comprehensive water conservation measures throughout our operations, including installing low-flow fixtures, conducting regular maintenance, and running awareness campaigns for staff and customers. These visible commitments normalise water conservation as standard business practice.
Facilitating Water- Saving Investments:
By offering financial products that enable water-saving investments—such as affordable financing for rainwater harvesting systems or filtration and IOT solutions, banks can help remove financial barriers to conservation and accelerate the adoption of water-saving technologies.
Supporting Education Initiatives:
Banks can leverage their platforms to share targeted water conservation information. FNB’s app-based Water Coach within Nav in Earth is a prime example of practical education in action. It provides users with a step-by-step guide to achieving water security, highlights the importance of conservation, and encourages action through an interactive, activity-based approach.
A Collaborative Path Forward:
The scale of South Africa’s water crisis demands that we move beyond fragmented approaches. Government, businesses, civil society, and communities must work together to develop educational initiatives that build not just awareness but understanding and commitment to change. By giving South Africans compelling reasons to value and conserve water, we can lay the foundation for lasting behavioural change that secures our water future.
