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“There is no crisis”, a recently common term ascribed to Government’s reaction to what media considers ‘crisis issues’. The term made headlines in the wake of the Zimbabwean elections and somehow have been associated to a range of other challenges facing South Africa and its Government.

Crime, Zimbabwe, Xenophobia, Energy, Water, all easily summed-up under one category of “there is no crisis”. Even though Government’s message on all these issues varies to a great extent, “there is no crisis” has become a convenient term in the wake of the nation wide rolling blackouts at the start of 2008.
The acknowledgement that media had been pushing for had finally been made after more than a thousand articles on Energy at the start of 2008 in opinion leading SA media. The final acknowledgement of a crisis situation left many asking, what will be next?

For the moment steering clear of the top negative issues in the South African media, namely Crime and Zimbabwe, what warning signs can media offer to this question of “Is water the next crisis?”

Looking at the visibility of Water issues in comparison to Energy issues, Minister Hendricks could be believed, but in the light of distrust in the recently popularized term “there is no crisis”, Water issues warrant a second look.

Even though Water issues receive substantially less coverage in the media in comparison to energy, it has yielded far more scrutiny.

In summary, since 2004, there have been a growing number of reports on water contamination, shortages, poor infrastructure and distribution. What further raises concern is that this trend was also reflected by Energy issues, but to a lesser negative degree.

Looking at more recent coverage, media’s ‘alarm bells’ started ringing louder in 2007 following the large scale Diarrhoea outbreak in Mpumalanga. In February 2008, a report compiled by the NNR highlighted their concern that the water supply in South Africa is of questionable safety and quality. This further coincided with a report that was released by The Sunday Times on Feb 3, 2008 stated that 43% of our dams are problematic in terms of safety and require repair. Moreover, there had been several reports on the contamination of water sources in the Johannesburg area. The concern was further heightened on a consumer level after a report published by Business Times on March 9, 2008, indicated that Eskom may be facing a water crisis. Reports also surfaced that various areas were said to require attention after several streams, dams and tap water sources were found to be allegedly contaminated with various metals and toxins due to mining waste. Next, on April 22, 2008 Mail & Guardian reported on the deaths of babies in the Eastern Cape due to alleged water contamination continued the barrage of highly negative examples of water associated problems. But does the political debate reflect the severity of the situation?

There exist similarities in the patterns of government communication on Water issues compared to their communication on Energy issues prior to 2008. There are, however, differences in the manner non-governmental sources are approaching the issues.

For Water issues there are much stronger criticism coming from political and societal sources. Governmental sources do acknowledge some of the criticism, but offsets this with a stronger measure of positive information. The most visible difference is, however, the level of input from journalists themselves. While journalists’ input on Energy issues were almost four times as much as that of the next closest source, their input on Water issues was only slightly higher than the next top source.


In Summary

Although Water issues are not as visible as Energy issues they attract stronger negative coverage. Many recent reports on water problems are surfacing and raising concern as South African society struggle to put faith in the “no crisis’” sentiment. What further raises this concern is the continual decreasing rating attributed to Water issues which were also reflected by in the media in reports on Energy issues over the last few years. Lastly there is a noticeable difference in the extent of input from journalists on Water issues in comparison to Energy issues. With all the signs in the media pointing towards a looming large scale water crisis, the question therefore is not so much whether there will be a water crisis, but rather whether journalists can further heighten the profile of Water issues to help raise awareness of the problem before it reaches a crisis proportions. Had journalists been previously often accused of not being ‘at the pulse of their readers’, it now seems that the media have awoken to some of the duties they have: raising an issue and setting the agenda for others to respond.