EXPERTS: Drought may affect entire SACD region

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As experts explore various ways to get South Africa out of a crippling drought, the Water Research Commission says The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is only using 14 percent of its water storage capacity, meaning the entire region is vulnerable to shortages.

The Commission is hosting a series of dialogues this week and has revealed that the current drought was inevitable, saying it actually came a few years later than expected.

CEO Dhesigen Naidoo says South Africa is currently using 80 per cent of dam storage capacity.

“As we move further north, this becomes less and less so SADC as a whole is currently using 14 percent of its potential storage capacity in the region as a whole. So the vulnerability north of us is much, much higher.”