The causes and impact of water shortage on the households of Ga-

Kgapane Township in the Limpopo Province

Introduction/ Rationale

Water is a basic need that must be provided to all the citizens and this is an
obligation on the side of the government according to the Constitution of the
Republic of South Africa, of 1996. According to this constitution, people must
have access to a certain quantity of water per day and the water must be free
from contamination. Insufficient water in the body may lead to dehydration and
this kind of situation may be deadly. All the above facts necessitate effective
service delivery from the Municipality to the communities under its jurisdiction.
Greater Letaba Municipality also, has a responsibility to supply water to the
communities under its jurisdiction including Ga-Kgapane Township, which is the
focus of this study.

Amponsah (2005), in the dissertation about Local Economic Development

projects in the Lehurutse District of Northwest Province, also highlights that water
plays a pivotal role in the success of LED projects. The findings of the study
revealed that the life span of projects depend on availability of water for
success. This means that for as much as the life span of a project depends on
water, households deserve the first priority on the side of the municipality on
provision of this basic need.

The water shortage, referred to in this study, is crucial for basic household needs
such as washing, cooking, drinking and sewerage system. The households in this
Township solely depend on the Greater Letaba Municipality for basic services
such as water supply. The source of this water is Makgoebaskloof Dam. Between
2004 and 2007 this water used to reach all the households in GaKgapane
through pipes to the taps in their yards. However, currently many people are
seen carrying water containers up and down drawing water from other sections
in the township, neighboring towns or villages such as Mmamphakhathi and
Bodupe. This situation depicts an inadequate supply of water in the township,
which prompted the researcher to investigate the impact of water shortage in
the Ga-Kgapane Township.
To sum up, Section 27(1) (a) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa,
of 1996 states that: everyone has the right to sufficient food and water. This act
gives effect to the White Paper on Transforming Public Service Delivery which
came from the Department of Public Service and Administration on 18
September, 1997. This White Paper states unequivocally that service delivery is
obligatory at all levels of government including local municipalities. However,
the people of Ga-Kgapane Township still experience water shortages, thus the
researcher intends to explore the causes and impact of water shortage on the
members of these households.
 Sustainable use of water
Rationale

All of us depend on the access to clean water: Without water to drink, we will
die within a few days. Plants and animals are not able to grow and survive
without water; so also our food production needs water, in short: Water is life!
That`s why the United Nations and the European Union put the topics “Access to
clean water” and “Sustainable use of water” at the top of their agenda (e.g.
Agenda 2020, Joint Programme “Water Challenges for a Changing World”).

So we have to deal with the question how to manage with our dependence on
fresh water while the fresh water resources have rapidly decreased over the last
decades. The loss of fresh water is caused by different reasons as climate
change, pollution and poisoning water with pesticides and industrial wastewater
and wasting water in the industrial sectors and private households. Nevertheless
the agriculture sector is particularly of great importance for the question how to
use, protect and maintain water in a sustainable way. This is because freshwater
is the most important limiting factor on food production, around 90% of global
water withdrawal is used in agriculture. But also the growing world population
will increase the demand for fresh water.

This analysis shows that it is necessary to find several solutions to solve the water
crisis. Our learning partnership could be seen as one step to give answers to the
question how we can use water in a sustainable way. That’s why we want to
influence the mind and behavior of us and other people to reach more
awareness and a sustainable way in using water. Our project combines
theoretical knowledge, with practical work, we will evaluate our own
consumption of water in our organizations, improve our own behavior, find best
practice examples, improve and develop (new) methods to share our
knowledge to other people. We will not only think about changing our behavior
but we will do it. The idea of our learning partnership has developed from our
daily work in our eco-friendly guesthouse and some of our seminars on the
subjects sustainability and agriculture. In our daily routine we try to find ways to
save water and develop ways to use resources in a sustainable way. We used
our workshops on the topic “water and sustainability” to discuss, evaluate and
improve our solutions and to spread our knowledge and skills to other people.

But global problems as the water crisis need more steps than changing behavior
on a local or regional level. We need to form networks, exchange ideas, best
practice examples and solutions on an international level to get the chance to
learn from each other.