South Africa is not facing a water crisis, despite reports of an impending drought disaster. "In terms of availability there is no crisis," said Harrison Pienaar, a water expert with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research."The problems lie in inefficiency of usage and poor management."Earlier this month, DA leader Mmusi Maimane described the country's water problem as "disastrous", saying that dams in KwaZulu-Natal would be depleted in two months if there was not sufficient rain.Engineering consulting company GIBB was also quoted as saying there was "water-shedding" in parts of KwaZulu-Natal, and that the country faced the problem of 20 years of neglect of infrastructure.But Pienaar, CSIR competency area manager for water resources, said yesterday that even though South Africa was "water-scarce", there was no need for panic.He said South Africa was one of the few countries that had laws to ensure various ecosystems had access to sufficient water. The problem was that "water is not reaching earmarked areas".Water Affairs Department spokesman Mlimandlela Ndamase said although KwaZulu-Natal was experiencing its worst drought in years, it was not bad enough to be declared a crisis, stating: "Only four of the 14 water service areas in KwaZulu-Natal are affected."For a crisis to be declared dam levels would have to be at less than 20%, and we must have lost all options of water supply for human consumption."AgriSA spokesman Kosi van Zyl said there were "significant problems" for vegetable farmers due to bacteria in water."[But] work is in progress by [the] Water Research Commission through [various] projects."The CSIR also warned that increases in temperatures as a result of carbon emissions and global warming would affect the situation significantly.It said if temperatures were to increased between 2ºC and 5°C, it would result in a 10% to 25% increase in water loss through evaporation of the country's water...