ripple effect of eskom crisis
South Africa has always been a water-constrained country.
The discovery of gold in 1886 therefore posed a major challenge, which impacted on the way our water and energy systems were engineered over the next century and a half.
The Witwatersrand Goldfields were in the centre of the country, on top of a high-altitude plateau that was so water scarce that only a treeless grassland could exist naturally.
The engineering challenges were immense, because water had to be pumped from distant sources to supply the growing Witwatersrand
