{"id":281193,"date":"2026-02-12T22:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T22:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/281193\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T22:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T22:50:12","slug":"sas-water-crisis-catches-attention-of-industry-giants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/281193\/","title":{"rendered":"SA&#8217;s water crisis catches attention of industry giants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The ongoing water crisis has also caught the attention of mining giants at the <a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ewn.co.za\/mining-indaba-mantashe-responds-to-industry-impediments\/\" target=\"_blank\">Mining Indaba<\/a> currently underway in Cape Town.<\/p>\n<p>This comes amid outrage over dry taps in some provinces, including a strike by communities in Joburg who are demanding urgent intervention to prevent a &#8220;day zero&#8221; scenario.<\/p>\n<p>Small and big businesses are also worried that the water shortages will drive profits down as operational challenges persist.<\/p>\n<p>Some miners and investors said they are also keeping a sharp eye on what\u2019s been termed as the next disaster.<\/p>\n<p>ALSO READ:<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ewn.co.za\/2026\/02\/11\/water-crisis-ministers-join-provincial-and-local-leaders-to-address-residents\" target=\"_blank\">Water crisis: Ministers join provincial and local leaders to address residents<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ewn.co.za\/2026\/02\/11\/gauteng-implements-soft-water-restrictions-to-prevent-system-collapse\" target=\"_blank\">Gauteng implements soft water restrictions to prevent system collapse<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ewn.co.za\/2026\/02\/11\/gauteng-implements-soft-water-restrictions-to-prevent-system-collapse\" target=\"_blank\">Gauteng implements soft water restrictions to prevent system collapse<\/a><\/p>\n<p>After being hobbled by power outages and high electricity costs, the energy intensive industry is now concerned about the impact of poor water security on mining operations.<\/p>\n<p>According to Deloitte\u2019s 2023 insights on african mining, 15% of unplanned downtime at some of the country\u2019s mines has been linked to water issues.<\/p>\n<p>Senior executive at the Minerals Council Tebello Chabana: \u201cWe want to tell our colleagues from across the continent, essentially how we&#8217;re working with government to solve some of these more intractable, difficult challenges, especially water in South Africa being one of the scarce resources &#8211; how we work together with our government partners to ensure that there&#8217;s water for the mines, for the communities, for the benefit of all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In contrast, environmentalists have also raised concerns about mining operations across the country continuing to generate large volumes of contaminated water, with abandoned mines remaining a major source of untreated acid mine drainage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ongoing water crisis has also caught the attention of mining giants at the Mining Indaba currently underway&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,44788,44789,44792,44791,44790,1258,111,43,786,139,69,44795,44794,44793,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-281193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-ewn","10":"tag-ewn-news","11":"tag-ewn-south-africa","12":"tag-eye-witness-news","13":"tag-eyewitness-news","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-news-today","18":"tag-newzealand","19":"tag-nz","20":"tag-prime-media-plus","21":"tag-primedia-plus","22":"tag-primedia","23":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}