Water Poverty Mapping and its Role in Assisting Water Management

Water scarcity occurs when the ways in which we use and distribute water cannot fully meet the demand from the environment, industry, farms and households. On a worldwide scale, the World Bank estimates that roughly 166 million people in 18 countries are affected by water scarcity and another 270 million people in 11 countries are water stressed (Hemson et al. , 2008). Given these 4igures, it is easy to see why w e can refer to the existence of a so-called global water crisis. The purpose of this paper is to document how water poverty mapping can assist the water management in three towns in South Africa. It should assist with as many as possible of the following aspects: the collection and analysis of all relevant information regarding the availability of water, its various uses, current supply status, future prospects, current water allocation details and the state and processes of water deprivation, and dissemination of information and messages arising from the analysis thereof to all concerned. It recommends that water poverty mapping be used as a managing tool by governments, water service providers and local municipalities. It can also form part of a local municipality’s master plan, which in turn, guides town expansion and infrastructure development. All three entities can use water poverty mapping as part of their water management strategy to replace, supplement or validate their water demand predictions so that future supply can be guaranteed.