According to Karen Villholth, a principal researcher focusing on groundwater for the International Water Management Institute, poorer rural communities in South Africa similarly struggle with groundwater issues — a problem exacerbated by the recent drought that has stricken the country. “There’s so much disparity in terms of access to water and access to reliable and good quality water,” she said.
That’s because while the country’s large cities have had the resources to more readily adapt to the drought, small cash-strapped rural communities, which are typically heavily reliant on groundwater, are being stretched to breaking point as they deal with aging and broken infrastructure, coupled with groundwater compromised through things like poor wastewater management and mining contamination. “Around South Africa there are lots of places that … don’t really have water at all,” Villholth said.