Calamitous water crisis looms for SA says expert

South Africa is slowly slipping into a water crisis which will be very difficult to extract ourselves from.

That's according to Dr Anthony Turton, a specialist in water as a national security risk.

He's penned an article in which he traces the history of the issues at hand, focussing on the role of water in the diversification of South Africa's industrial economy.

Turton says the root of the problem is clear.

"The root cause of all of this problem is sewage...sewage is probably our biggest single national crisis at the moment."

- Dr Anthony Turton, Professor -  Centre for Environmental Management at the University of Free State

"Cape Town has come out of a fairly dark place, with Day Zero, but they right at the cutting edge of adaptation and change."

- Dr Anthony Turton, Professor -  Centre for Environmental Management at the University of Free State

"As we get overwhelmed by the speed of change, we need to mobilise as much ingenuity to solve the problems that our created by our ingenuity in the first place."

- Dr Anthony Turton, Professor -  Centre for Environmental Management at the University of Free State

Scroll up to listen to the full interview from Good Morning with Lester Kiewit