Sitting in the dark and wondering when you can flush

The water crisis is no longer looming - it is most definitely here. A Johannesburg Water report warns that if we don't reduce our water consumption by about 20%, demand will outstrip supply by next year.

We've just been hit with a 10% hike in the cost of water and there can be no doubt that in future it is going to cost us a lot more.

There have been warnings of water rationing similar to Eskom's load-shedding. Melodramatic? Maybe not.

One thing is for sure, the promise of a dystopian future in which cities are dark and dry does not square very well with President Zuma's "good story" narrative.

Not that he need worry. In Nkandla, where hundreds of householders have to carry buckets of water from muddy rivers, it is comforting to know that phase two of the Middledrift water scheme is on track. The scheme will supply water exclusively to ward 14, in which our president's private residence is situated.

Outside ward 14, it is not just Joburg that is in trouble. Durban has warned of similar water shortages, and in North West, where more than half of service-delivery protests are water-related, two people were killed in unrest this year.

The SA Human Rights Commission recently claimed that our lack of access to clean water and adequate sanitation is potentially a national crisis - with water poverty linked to risk of disease and threats to basic rights, such as the right to education.

But, more worryingly, the commission also pointed out that most municipalities, particularly the small ones, cannot spend the money they have been allocated for fixing water-related infrastructure problems. Budgets are not spent because no one knows what to spend them on, or independent contractors are hired and the familiar tale of corruption unfolds.

So, though it is good news that R100-billion is earmarked to tackle Joburg's water crisis, with some of that money to be used to fix leaks that account for 30% of our water going to waste, we should still spare a thought for what it might be like to sit in the dark waiting for water.