The wicked challenge of water

"Most people in developing countries are much more worried about service than resources. But all services are underpinned by the resource and we forget that at our peril."

This is according to Professor Mike Muller, Visiting Adjunct Professor at the Wits School of Governance, who delivered a public lecture titled: "The Wicked Challenge of Sustaining South Africa's Water Security" at Wits University on 18 June 2014.

According to Muller, South Africa is not the only country with water problems. London has spent R100 billion on diverting sewerage out of the Themes to protect the health of 100 000 people who row there. Meanwhile the city seems blissfully unaware that they have about half a million people living on a flood plain.

Australia, in response to drought, spent billions on desalination plants, only to have them flooded and left unused. Thailand had 70 different government agencies responsible for water when its industrial area was struck by a flood that affected so many factories that there was a measurable effect on global GDP. Even Holland, the country that we thought knew exactly what it was doing when it came to water, is very worried.

According to Muller, it is actually nice to come back to South Africa where, despite continuous warnings, things seem to be on track. But, he warned, the fact that the country has come through the decade fairly well, without a drought for years, means that now is the time when we should be most worried. And if our history of infrastructure maintenance in municipalities is not that good, he asked, how long before the problem repeats itself on a larger scale?

Water is a wicked problem because it is complex, there are many different interest groups, and the extremes – which happen maybe once in a generation – are concealed by averages. "Averages do not teach responses to extremes," said Muller.

He argued that attitudes to environmental challenges were part of the problem. Europe, for example, mandates a return to nature, but people without basic income are different to those who have sorted out their standard of living. "We have to acknowledge that we live in the Anthropocene and not treat nature as something out there," said Muller.

Between 1985 and 2000/05, environmental interest groups opposed to dams managed to achieve an almost complete embargo on financing for dams in Africa, said Muller. "The arrival of China has completely changed that. When they arrived and asked governments what they wanted – besides conference centres and stadiums – they said they wanted hydropower, irrigation and water supply for cities. Sub-Saharan Africa uses less than 5% of its available water, as opposed to 30 to 40% in other places, despite the fact that we've been told we're water scarce."

He contrasted the decision making process in China's Politburo, which is technically orientated, with the decision making process in a democracy, which he said was more vulnerable to being hijacked by interest groups who've "learned to play the democratic game" and to frame debates in ways that suit them.

"Water management isn't a technocratic decision anymore and water managers need to learn to work in this new world," he said.

According to Muller, the way to deal with a wicked challenge like sustaining water security is to take a long term perspective – to worry not about what's going to happen next year, but what's going to happen over a decade or two.

In addition: "We need a capable and developmental state that acts to resolve historical inequalities through delivering better public services and facilitating investment," he said. As non-local firms buy our specialist technical consulting skills, we lose our capacity to create a developmental state. "This is a wicked problem in its own right."

In his conclusion, Muller said that South Africa needed to recognise the localness of water and avoid general solutions; strengthen relationships between water users and water managers; develop a common understanding of possible water futures; ensure that knowledge influences social and political decisions; not assume that technical advice will be accepted and seek to keep society's debates technically informed; and develop the special people who can rise to the challenges.

Provided by Wits University