MISSION IS FUN

Language challenges

BY Museketeri Mkotokoto

FR GEORGE arrived at Waterval Mission, Mpumalanga at a mature age. In his first years in the mission, he made a great effort to learn the Northern Sotho language of Sepedi and he reached a certain level of proficiency, which allowed him to celebrate Mass and even to preach in Sepedi. However, quite often, when the faithful started to interact in fast conversations he would easily get lost.

One day, Fr Jorge had a meeting with the Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) and several issues were discussed. At the end of the meeting, Mr Ndlovu, then chairperson of the PPC, addressed the parish priest privately saying: “Fr Jorge, I think you did not understand much of what was discussed today”.

“Why do you say that?” Fr Jorge replied.

“Because when you were supposed to say ‘Yes’ to our proposals you were answering ‘

No’ and when we were expecting you to say ‘No’, your reply was ‘Yes’”, said Mr Ndlovu. They both had a great laugh and life continued.

NB: The names of the characters have been changed.

THE LAST WORD • the samaritan woman

If only you knew the gift of God (Jn 4: 1–42)

BY Fr Silvano Fausti SJ | Biblist and writer

AFTER THE encounter at night with Nicodemus, the man of the law, and John, the prophet, Jesus meets a woman of Samaria. It is not the female version of the same journey of faith. If Nicodemus and John represent Israel’s typical religious itinerary, this woman represents the more universal faith journey, which starts from our common ‘thirst’ and the ‘water’ that quenches it. Even those who know the law and the prophets, approach God only through the thirst for their deepest desires.

After the prologue (Jn 1: 1–18), the underlying protagonist of John’s Gospel is the water, the origin of life. In chapter 1, John is baptising as he meets Jesus; in chapter 2, the water for purifications is transformed into beautiful wine at Cana; in chapter 3, the rebirth from water and the Spirit; in chapter 5, the pool of Bethesda where Jesus heals the crippled man who has been waiting for the prodigious water.

The encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman takes place in solitude. Jesus speaking to her, arouses wonderment in her, as well as in the disciples (cf. Jn 4: 9, 27). In Jesus’ culture, a teacher would not talk to a woman in the street; even a husband would only address his wife in the privacy of their home.

The narrative is a love story, a dialogue in which Jesus offers His gift to the woman

One goes to the well in the cool hours of dawn and dusk. Why does this woman come at noon, when she is sure to meet no other women? What water does she desire in the hour of heat and thirst? Jesus’ question, “Give me a drink” seems strange to her. It sounds like the advances of someone who wants to approach her. She gets it right. It is indeed the beginning of a courtship. At the edge of the well, Jacob had courted Rachel (Gen 29: 9ff; cf. Gen 24) and Moses the seven daughters of Reuel (Ex 2: 10–22). Jesus, unlike them, does not exhibit strength and courage, but weakness. Tired and forlorn, He is thirsty, like the woman who comes to draw water.

Every word, if not a hidden allusion, is a blatant misunderstanding. Misunderstandings open the horizon to the different; they bring novelty and are actually a fruitful place of intelligence, love and life.

The text begins with a game of misunderstandings about water (vv. 7ff). Beyond the well of material water is that of the law, whose water is the word of life. There is also the deep well, the woman’s heart, which, in turn, points to a more abysmal mystery, from which all existence springs. There is another water, that the woman, despite having had six men, has not yet found. It is the water for which Jesus also thirsts: the love between Bridegroom and bride. The misunderstandings, after water, focus on husband and husbands (vv. 16ff); and, later on, on the various places and ways of worshipping God (vv. 20ff), finally reaching food and harvest (vv. 27ff). Water and bread, love and God, are basic human needs, the primary site of misunderstandings and understanding among human beings.

The various themes are intimately connected, in a succession of images referring back to each other, in precise order where the one that follows, develops the one that precedes. Each misunderstanding results in a further understanding of Jesus, recognised first as the One who gives living water (v. 15), then as a prophet (v. 19), later as the Messiah and I AM (v. 26) and, finally, as the Saviour of the world (v. 42).

The figures and symbols that come into play are suggestive and eloquent: thirst and water, man and woman, the bridegroom and the various husbands, the temple in Spirit and truth, and the various temples, food and the will of God, the toil of sowing and the joy of harvest. These are fundamental realities and everyone has a limited experience of them.

The narrative is a love story, a dialogue in which Jesus offers His gift to the woman; a gradual journey which culminates in her recognizing Jesus as the world’s Saviour. Jesus is the spring of living water, the Bridegroom who seeks the unfaithful bride to give her His love. In Him, true worship is fulfilled: love toward the Father, which nourishes that toward the brethren, without religious, ethnic or cultural distinctions.

The Church, like the woman of Samaria, finds in Jesus the Bridegroom who redeems her from her failures and gives her His Spirit as Son, to love the Father and the brethren.

FRONTIERS • MISSION IN ETHIOPIA

Evangelizing Through Sharing of Life

Fr Paul Schneider is an American-born Spanish diocesan priest. He left his home to become a missionary in Ethiopia. He narrates his experience among the Oromian people to whom he ministers and with whom he shares his life

BY Fr Paul Schneider | Lagarba, Ethiopia
PHOTOS BY JOSE MARTIN

TO BE HONEST, I never thought that the mission would be so exciting. Since we have finished the boreholes in the schools and the rains have started, my pace of work has slowed down in terms of construction and projects, but in terms of personal relations, these have intensified, with community members from many families in the area, both Christians and Muslims.

I’ve been on this mission for five years. I’ve learnt the Amharic language, and I already speak some Oromo. I enjoy being with the people; we laugh a lot and we always talk about doing things together. I often feel that no other time in my life would have been better if God had not brought me to this place.

Planting trees

Together with the voluntary co-operation of the people, we are planting a lot of trees, it’s the right time for it; now it’s raining and the ground is not drying out. This week, we have planted about five thousand plants, mostly conifers and Grevilleas, along the side of our new road, so that as the roots grow, the slopes will be strengthened and there will be no landslides. We have also planted many fruit trees at the mission. We already had almost a hundred coffee plants growing, and last week we added guava, mango, papaya, banana, custard apple and other trees. They will take years to bear fruit, and those that don’t thrive, we will replace.

As I drive back and forth with the pick-up, I am getting to know the public tree nurseries of the area, and meeting more people from other places. As we have constructed the road and other projects, the authorities are very grateful, and they give us all the seedlings we need for free. We also encourage the villagers to plant trees on the edges of their fields and on land that has been left fallow by erosion or continuous cultivation. Nothing can ensure that the rain may be as it used to be, but the shade from the trees certainly will reduce soil temperature, prevent moisture from evaporating, and when their leaves fall, they will mulch (in the case of deciduous trees) and make the soil more fertile. Moreover, where there is a grove of trees, crops, vegetables and fruit trees are better protected from hail and strong winds. A tree can be planted in two minutes, and once it takes root, it hardly needs any care.

Faith-growing experience

Sometimes, I think back to why I came here, and evaluate all these years in the mission. Although hardships are our daily bread, if the missionary experience during these years had not been an opportunity to grow in faith and joy, I would have returned long ago to my beloved diocese of Getafe, in Spain. Faith gives you many gifts, it opens doors, hearts and people. The mission can only be lived from our faith. I didn’t come here to build houses, bridges, roads and boreholes, or to plant trees. I do all that but I don’t even consider myself the author of these works, much less boast about them, even if I enjoy working and I am passionate about them. I came here for my salvation, to be more of His own and to share His love. That is evangelisation. Evangelisation is the most necessary thing for the world, more than all the social causes. Everything else comes afterwards, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all else will be given to you besides” (Mt 6: 33). Evangelisation has its basis in worship.

Evangelisation is the most necessary thing
for the world

My presence here is to live among the poor, to be their father and their shepherd, and to contribute whatever I can to the betterment of their lives, spiritually, materially, in everything. When you live with the people, the poor share what they have, and they also ask of you. They ask you often, sometimes they overwhelm you; sometimes you give and sometimes you refuse, but in either case, you know that Christ asks you to renew your generosity daily, and the mission demands that you overcome your selfishness, make sacrifices and live with austerity.

Food sobriety

Austerity, for example, in food. If I have some special food that I like, I prefer to share it with those who live with me and, if not, it is better I deprive myself of it and not buy it, and just eat what people eat, even if sometimes I miss some things such as chocolate or meat. Here you don’t eat à la carte, or special things bought in the city, such as cold cuts, tinned tuna, cold meats, powdered milk or chocolate (all unaffordable for people in the countryside), unless, as I say, you invite everyone you are with. I no longer have any excuse for not eating what they eat, as my stomach is more than adapted, although I don’t always love it. I have got used to always eating vegetables and injera (bread made of fermented teff flour), and not eating meat, dairy products or eggs except occasionally, when there is a party or when I go to the city, which can be every month or every two months.

This is how most families live in Lagarba, they can’t afford beyond that. As far as possible, and without prejudice to health, whoever comes here for a long time should eat and drink what is here, what the people eat and drink. “Eat and drink what is set before you” (Lk 10: 8), is the advice of Jesus to his missionary disciples. No one starves in Lagarba, but many families do go a little hungry; they only eat once or twice a day, and the food is very simple and the portions are tight. There are rarely any leftovers. Everyone loves sugar and coffee. This is the land of coffee, but many families go for days and weeks without coffee or sugar due to a lack of income to buy it. However, when there is an important holiday, such as the Ethiopian New Year (Enkutatash, 11/12 September), or Easter or Christmas, every family eats meat, even if they have to indebt themselves to buy a few kilos, or spend the savings they have so that on that occasion they make sure that there is no shortage of coffee, sugar and biscuits for the children. Wealthier families also buy new clothes for their children, to wear on those two or three special days of the year, but many others cannot. The rural poor, even if they would never have voluntarily chosen poverty and being born here, have a special strength to live with continuous deprivation, and they also have the enthusiasm and innocence of those who are not satisfied or jaded, and you don’t see bitter people as you may find in the city. I share with you my experience, which has a lot to do with liberation, and which has been a gradual adaptation, not without renunciations, even in something as prosaic as food.

In Jesus’ footsteps

The Son of God worked with His hands and taught us that manual labour is a school of holiness. So did St Paul, the Fathers of the Desert, the Benedictines, and the laity throughout the centuries. I like to give a hand to the farmers in the fields; that is also part of evangelisation, to be with the people and to work with them, to know their fatigues and become one with them, to make them feel that I am also theirs. Working together, sharing food and praying together, this is the Church. There is time for everything, time to put on the cassock and time to take it off and roll up your sleeves, pick up the hoe, and get calluses and blisters on your hands, and get dirty with sweat and dust, and in everything, you can find the joy of the Lord.

I like to give a hand to the farmers in the fields; that is also part of evangelisation, to be with the people and
to work with them

I am content with this life, with its toils and privations. It is the dynamic of sacrifice that is repeated every day, like the Eucharist. You are consumed, and you know that the sacrifice has an eternal purpose, that God has prepared a reward and rest for you.

YOUTH VOICES • WATER RESILIENCE

Finding water in a dry place

BY Jill Williams | Candidate Landscape Architect, Pretoria

FROM THE time we are conceived to the time we are buried, we are constantly interacting with water. It has fascinated man for millennia due to its strength and violence and its life-giving calmness. It can do the greatest of harm or a world of good, depending on its state and how it is utilised.

In the media, we are often faced with the devastating effects of drought, such as what is currently happening across the Horn of Africa, in parts of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. We are also faced with floods, destroying homes and livelihoods, such as what happened in KZN, South Africa during May and June 2022. Furthermore, we are confronted by the recklessness and uncaring attitude of large corporate companies that pollute water by disposing of tonnes of toxic waste into rivers daily, such as in the case of the Klip River, south of Johannesburg (Dini, J.& McCarthy 2015). It’s in such times that the last things people are concerned about are the plants and animals in their environment, which might have run out of reliable sources of water—clean drinking water more specifically.

Effects of unavailable clean water

One of the unfortunate results when ‘water shedding’ (the cutting-off of water supply to certain areas for a controlled period of time) occurs, apart from water pumps breaking down, a lack of clean drinking water and proper sanitation, amongst others, is the lack of clean drinking water for animals and the death or ill health of plants. Not being able to water one’s plants with clean water and watering them with grey or unsafe tap water has rather negative effects on them and sometimes causes plants to fall into a period of ill health due to the concentration of some harmful chemicals such as chlorine in grey water (Life is a garden, n.d.). This can be particularly harmful to edible plants due to the presence of some bacterial organisms such as Escherichia coli​ (Simpson 2022).

Have you ever noticed how much more ‘alive’ your plants look, even if it is overcast? This is due to chemical compositions in tap water versus rainwater. According to The Conversation (2018), tap water, depending on its source can contain more sodium or chlorine, which, after some time, can reduce the plant’s ability to take up nitrates (plant food). Rainwater and air that is saturated with water vapour have all the aspects required for the healthy growth of your plants—it is aerated (oxygenated) through the evaporation and condensation process, is heated and exposed to sunlight containing UV rays which help to remove harmful chemicals from the water and eventually becomes ‘fixed’ with nitrates through the process of nitrogen fixation, before falling to the ground in the form of tiny water droplets (fog) or larger water droplets of rain, which can freeze to form hail or snow. The process brings ‘life’ back into water and that life ensures that plants receive much more nutritional content than just tap water and manual soil improvement alone.

Natural means of improving water quality

There are other means of improving water quality naturally. Some plants, such as hydrophilic (water-loving) plants provide a great benefit environmentally for improving water quality. The above-cited case study (Dini, J.& McCarthy 2015), mentions that wetlands, also called marshlands or peatlands, are natural water-scrubbing areas that need a few important elements to purify water. The process requires anaerobic soils, hydrophilic plants, sunshine and time amongst others. The slower the rate of movement of the water, the more time it has to interact with the plants, soil and sunshine, causing harmful chemicals to become trapped in the plants and soil. Some peatlands are very old, such as the Upper Kapuas Basin in the Indonesian part of Borneo Island, at the geographic centre of maritime South-east Asia which is more than 47 000 years old (Monika 2020). It contains so much stored carbon in its peat that it can possibly burn for thousands, if not millions of years if ignited! That is how effective this system is when retained in its natural state or constructed in a way that is true to the natural principles of wetland systems.

Natural systems such as these are so effective that they can produce potable (drinkable) water if maintained in the system for long enough. Yet, long periods of drought and increased pressure on this system when rain does eventually fall, together with the narrowing of waterways and the increased rate of flow of water in the system prevent it from adequately interacting with the water-scrubbing agents and therefore causes harmful chemicals to remain in the water. Furthermore, the rapid flow rate may cause plants to become damaged and uprooted due to the effect of soil erosion. This ultimately destroys wetland systems. This requires the collaboration of the private and public sectors, to ensure that these systems are not overburdened. People and animals could even benefit from this system through the production of edible plants such as the Aponogeton distachyos or Waterblommetjie, found in the Western Cape, which is famous for fantastic stews and other dishes.

Air plants

So, what can we do to have beautiful-looking plants and possibly benefit from naturally cleaned water in the process?

Rainwater and air that is saturated with water vapour have all the aspects required for the healthy growth of your plants

The first option is to go almost completely ‘off the grid’ with epiphytes, which are also known as air plants. Air plants work very well as ornamental pieces in and around the home; however, these generally do not produce anything edible and do not necessarily assist with water purification or as a source of clean water. They can be hung anywhere from a kitchen shelf to a trellis or pot outside and require little to no water and soil, as all the nutrient content it requires is from the air. A personal favourite is Old man’s beard or Clematis vitalba.

Succulent plants

The second, more known option is the use of succulents. Xerophytic or dry landscapes are often overlooked when the conversation of water availability and conversations on water ensue. We think about what is visible—oceans, rivers, lakes. However, all landscapes have water-holding systems and the capacity to provide water to their inhabitants, even the driest of deserts!

The indigenous nomads of southern Africa, the San, used plants such as Sceletium tortuosum or Kanna as a water source when going on long hunting excursions

The indigenous nomads of southern Africa, the San, used plants such as Sceletium tortuosum or Kanna as a water source when going on long hunting excursions (Manganyi et al. 2021). Plants such as these could be squeezed or crushed to release moisture, a natural source of clean water, as well as additional health benefits for their journey ahead. This is a source of both food and water for both people and animals.

Xerophytic plants have amazing structures, just like their hydrophilic counterparts. They are generally composed of fleshy leaves and sometimes thick rhizomes and tubes that can be eaten and that store water. Even their smooth and waxy texture ensures that any available water vapour collected on its surface immediately runs down its fleshy skin into the ground, to be stored by the rhizomes or be taken up by the roots into a thick fleshy stem or leaf, depending on the plant. Isn’t that amazing? One can plant xerophytic plants such as succulents in smaller spaces; in terrariums and even in broken coffee mugs! The variety in size, colour and form of succulents allows one to have a very wide variety of choices when planting in all spaces—great and small. Furthermore, the additional benefit of planting succulents in your garden or pot is that they can provide edible plants for cooking, such as the Portulacaria afra or Spekboom, which has become widely popular in soups and salads, as elephants also discovered in the thickets of the Eastern Cape and the semi-arid Karoo area of South Africa.

Xerophytic landscapes

Xerophytic landscapes save water, money and energy in terms of maintenance, as indicated in National Cash Offer (2019). These landscapes are also visually striking and can be used to replace exotic plant species which often consume large quantities of water, without giving any benefit back to the community, apart from the visual appeal. Natural rainwater and very seldom manual watering will keep your garden looking in top form (even if grey water is all you have at your disposal). So why not give plants as a gift instead of something you will throw away later? You can start building up your xeriscape by using plant cuttings, gifting people with succulent plants and re-investing your lunch money for a short time into greening your personal and work spaces. Most succulents are pet friendly and have their relevant information available at the nursery or online to ensure that the plants you purchase are not harmful if they decide to take a nibble on them.

The additional benefit of planting succulents in your garden or pot is that they can provide edible plants for cooking

One aspect that many say detracts from the use of succulents is their aesthetic appeal. Nonetheless, I foresee that future landscapes would look much more airy and succulent. Not everyone likes the look of a succulent; however, the look of your water bill at the end of the month will surely make a Desert rose look like the finest rose from the King’s garden!

MEMORIAL • FR ALBERT NOLAN

A prophet of hope for today’s world

Well-known South African Catholic priest, anti-apartheid activist and internationally renowned theologian and author, Fr Albert Nolan died at the age of 88, at Marian House in Boksburg, Johannesburg on 17 October 2022. Awarded the Order of Luthuli in Silver by the then President Thabo Mbeki in 2003 for his “life-long dedication to the struggle for democracy, human rights and justice and for challenging the religious dogma, especially the theological justification for apartheid”, Nolan inspired a generation of Christian activists and theologians

BY the Worldwide team

ALBERT NOLAN was born to South African parents of Irish descent, on 2 September 1934 in Cape Town. He went to school at St Joseph’s Marist Brothers, in Rondebosch. After school, he worked for some years in a bank. He felt the call for religious life and joined the Dominican Order, motivated by their dedication to study, prayer and proclaiming the Word of God, as well as by their commitment to search for truth. He did his novitiate in 1954, and was ordained in 1961.

Shortly after his ordination, he went to study his licentiate and his Ph.D. in biblical theology in Rome. He lived there during the celebration of the Second Vatican Council. He said it was one of the most formative events of his life. He got acquainted with the new ideas coming forth. When he finished his studies in 1964, he came back to Stellenbosch, South Africa, where he worked in a parish while teaching.

Attending a conference about the New Testament in Stellenbosch, and listening to the speakers, he started feeling more and more uncomfortable; “something was amiss there”. The scholars had a philological approach, analysing each word of the Bible passages, trying to understand its meaning and relationship with other accounts in the Old Testament. Though interesting, Fr Albert had in mind a different way of approaching Scripture, rather than the scholarly way.

Like Thomas Merton, Fr Albert realised that following Christ was not just leaving the world behind, but immersing oneself fully in it, as Jesus did through His incarnation. Scriptures were powerful because they were the Word of God, alive and active. The Word of God was there to touch people’s hearts, to change them and to bring them to conversion so that they could transform the reality in which they lived. Scripture was not only for academics, but ordinary people should also be able to read the Bible and understand its significance in their lives. That made his preaching, his theology, so vibrant—it freed people to follow Christ and to be truly themselves.

As chaplain to the Catholic students at Stellenbosch University, Fr Albert passed on this great enthusiasm for Scripture. He touched students’ lives, making them aware that faith was not something for Sunday, but to be carried out in one’s daily life. Scripture wasn’t something one reads and says, ‘Oh, what lovely words; how inspiring,’ but it was there to recognise one’s dignity and authenticity as a human being, and to go out to recognise this in others.

Contrary to the ‘official ideology’ of apartheid, that whites were the special loved ones of God, and black people were second class at best, Fr Albert believed that every person, created in God’s image and likeness, was a child of God, whose dignity needed to be respected, to be upheld, and whose rights needed to be fought for. In humility, he would say: “It is not me saying this”. He never pointed to himself, but always to Jesus.

“Now is the time, the Kairos; our opportunity to change and live in a new way. Let us not delay or we might lose the chance”

In 1981, Fr Albert was reminding the Catholic students of WITS University, white South Africans, that we could not buy into the ideology of apartheid; we had to stand against it, even to the point of giving up our lives. He used to be very uncompromising in his preaching.

For him, the Gospel was not just about consolation and comfort, but also about challenge. His theological approach motivated us all—white, black, rich and poor. His first book, That man Jesus, a rewriting of the lectures to the student’s conference in 1973, was reformulated into Jesus before Christianity. The book starts with a warning: if we carry on in the direction we are travelling, we are heading for catastrophe.

Fr Albert, who participated actively in writing the Kairos document, often preached: “Now is the time, the Kairos; our opportunity to change and live in a new way. Let us not delay or we might lose the chance.”

Throughout his life, he sought to bring theology down from academic heights, closer to students, to workers, to all, especially black people, nourishing their lives. For him, theology was not just to be read, or prayed about, but to be lived. He met South American theologians, particularly Gustavo Gutiérrez, then a diocesan priest, and author of A theology of liberation who inspired him to follow his methodology of See-Judge-Act; to look at the reality (see), evaluate it and understand it in the context of the Bible (judge) and, most importantly, not to leave it at an academic level, but to act, and make a difference in the world.

See-Judge-Act became the means to follow Christ’s prophetic way. It’s not enough to write statements against injustices or to say what is wrong or right. Something needs to be done by getting involved in the reality in which we live, becoming like That man Jesus, who was concerned for the suffering of others. It implies bringing change into people’s lives which enables them to have their humanity recognised. Ideologies such as apartheid dehumanised not only the oppressed but the oppressor. Fr Albert tried to free all people from it, and to help them to live as Christ did, in a more compassionate, loving, forgiving way, and to work for social justice. He believed that Jesus didn’t die on the Cross for opposing doctrines of Judaism, but because He stood up for those who were in greatest need.

Fr Albert’s theology showed concern for the suffering of humanity. As Christians, we cannot stand aloof, but we have to do something to alleviate that suffering. His second book, God in South Africa, was an exercise of contextual theology. As a member of the Institute for Contextual Theology (ICT) in Johannesburg, he tried to develop a theology—based on See-Judge-Act—which speaks to the concrete reality of suffering and seeks to become a prophetic witness to a life-giving and transforming word. In a context where things look catastrophic, it shows that God speaks a Word of transformation to His people.

He always pointed to hope in any situation, because of his deep trust and faith in That man Jesus, and in God’s work

Fr Albert wanted to make all aware that God was active and at work in the South African context, bringing transformation. In harsh situations, we can easily lose direction, give up hope, or be in despair. His speech, after receiving the honorary title of Master of Sacred Theology in 2008, entitled Hope in an age of despair, characterised his person; he never despaired. He always pointed to hope in any situation, because of his deep trust and faith in That man Jesus, and in God’s work. He believed that God was in every situation, so there was no need to fear. Faced with catastrophe or danger, when we do something, God blesses our efforts and increases the results. God enables reality to be transformed into His handiwork, into His life-giving project for humanity, for the salvation of the world. Fr Albert had this unshakable hope in life.

Fr Albert showed what needed to be done so that one wouldn’t lose hope, giving people another opportunity and understanding the situation from another perspective. In our world today, Fr Albert’s way of living for Christ, pointing to That man Jesus, is as necessary as it was when he wrote his book. After 1994 with the decline of the rainbow nation idea, and many people on the bandwagon to get rich quickly, and to hollow out the institutions of our society, he wrote another book, Jesus today. In it, he says, “yes, we needed to change the structures of society—and that was the emphasis in the past—though perhaps not exclusively; but now, we need also a personal conversion to look at the values of the Kingdom, rather than the corrupt and selfish values of the world”.

He called us to move from the false self to a more life-giving self, the true self, as Thomas Merton called it, which can help us bring about the change that is needed, so that we can avert selfishness, corruption, and ecological devastation. When Fr Albert was asked to write his memoirs, he said: “if people want to know who I was, what I believed and what I stood for, they can read my books”. Hopefully, his words will encourage us to do so, read his books, and follow That man Jesus.

REFLECTIONS • ANTHROPOCENE ERA

Our Human Condition and Water in an Era of Global Warming

Humanity has the capacity to destroy or preserve this planet. Global warming and urbanisation are currently straining world hydric resources. A global effort to preserve water can determine our future

BY ohann Tempelhoff | Water historian and extraordinary professor, Faculty of Humanities, North-West University, Vanderbijlpark Campus, South Africa.

IN 1957 the political philosopher, Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) published a book, The human condition, describing how major scientific breakthroughs since the 17th century, had changed our consciousness of the world. Her intellectual focus was on Sputnik—the first unmanned spacecraft to orbit Earth’s elliptical path in a mere 98 minutes. Arendt argued that people had started thinking differently in the 20th century. For her, it had everything to do with a consciousness of our collective human condition in a time of exponential intellectual growth.

Arendt contemplated the vitality of human activities and how they shaped societies’ collective mentality. By using science, technology and the arts, humans had produced motorised transport, Einstein’s Law of Relativity, and even nuclear bombs. Humans, she warned, had even become capable of the mass extermination of their own species.

Moreover, humans had started exploring the Universe—beyond Earth’s confines. Arendt juxtaposed her understanding of the human condition with the tipping point of individual and collective self-perceptions of eternity and immortality.

Science has progressed much since the 1950s. By the 1990s physicists, meteorologists and environmental scientists warned governments of the world about global warming. They confirmed that emissions of greenhouse gases (methane and carbon dioxide) and toxic chemical waste, had started warming up the planet. Earth has a long history of naturally warming and cooling over extended periods, but now we humans had started changing the very climate of our home planet.

The Anthropocene era and South Africa’s water challenges

As we drifted into a new millennium in 2000, the Nobel Laureate, Paul Crutzen, at a meeting of the Scientific Committee of the IGBP (International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme) in Cuernavaca, Mexico introduced the term, Anthropocene era, as a description of the time we are living in. Many scientists underscored Crutzen’s views. Humans (Anthropos) had indeed started changing the course of nature itself. The ‘new geological epoch’, Crutzen suggested, could well be named the Anthropocene era. Of all the animals on earth, we humans had scored a first—the capacity to change the planet’s climate. We may also be instrumental in its destruction.

Nowadays, environmental scientists use the Anthropocene era to describe the current dangerous trajectory of the human condition.

For one, climate change has a profound impact on South Africa’s water resources. We are one of the globe’s 40 most water-stressed countries. For many centuries we have thrived under extreme natural disaster conditions of drought and floods in what is today’s South Africa.

However, in the era of climate change, water-related floods and drought conditions have become anthropogenic disaster events. Now natural floods and droughts are compounded by how we humans have been abusing the environment. In April 2022, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and parts of the Eastern Cape suffered devastating floods. These floods turned into disaster events because we had anthropogenically changed natural environments to suit our own purposes. We had not planned ahead. Few precautions had been taken to safeguard human beings settled on what used to be natural shrublands, forests and even grasslands.

Since the 1970s the lack of rural and urban planning strategies, especially in South Africa’s informal settlements, claimed many lives. It wreaked havoc on human living conditions. Many urban residents had been left destitute under circumstances that had been shaped by a human condition, notable for its cunning ability to ignore the suffering of others. It was most evident in the lack of proper water and sanitation facilities in these settlements.

Unpredictable climate patterns

Between 2014 and 2020, South Africa experienced a countrywide drought. At the United Nations November 2021 Conference of Parties (COP) summit in Glasgow, South Africa’s climate change experts affirmed their consensus on future severe climate change. As members of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) they reported on a persistent climate change trend. Southern Africa is warming in the west. It will also become drier. Most rainfall will be unpredictable—mainly in the northern and south-eastern parts of the sub-continent.

Already we have some contemporary historical evidence. In 2016 the water resources of the Vaal Dam, a prime Gauteng water supply storage facility, started drying up. Thanks to erratic cyclonal events in 2017, the Mozambican channel weather turmoil was instrumental in flooding parts of Zimbabwe, Malawi, and the north-eastern part of South Africa.

Erratic cyclone conditions of this kind are destined to now determine our climate in southern Africa. The 2017 cyclone deposited much-needed stormwater in Mpumalanga Province that flowed into the catchment of the Vaal Dam. It saved the day for Gauteng Province—the country’s most populous region—thanks to a meteorological surveillance system of the country’s weather services.

In 2017 the City of Cape Town alerted its residents to prepare for a ‘Day Zero’. The city could soon be without water supplies. Western Cape’s customary winter rainfall had been erratic since 2015. In April 2018, within days of Cape Town running out of water, the first winter rainfall brought a respite to the city and its residents.

Urbanisation and connectivity

Sub-Saharan Africa is currently the region of the world with the highest urbanisation rate. In the mid-2000s, half of South Africa’s population was resident in urban areas. By September 2022 an estimated 66.7% of South Africa’s 60.9 million residents, lived in urban areas.

In urban areas, residents require copious water supplies, sanitation and proper stormwater infrastructure systems. Needless to say, there are frequent shortfalls in urban water resources and infrastructure systems in villages, informal settlements, towns, and the country’s cities. As more lands open up, plans are made to provide water and sanitation services. Often there are shortfalls in funding the infrastructure and ultimately even the water resources.

Our contemporary human condition is notable for its ability to be connected: mobile phones, computers, the internet and a vast array of social media platforms have connected us with countless numbers of people in many parts of the world. We are exposed to news, views, gossip and anger, but also humour. Experts now even speak of the ‘Multiverse’—a future human condition where our global intellectual feedlot is determined by algorithms and no longer our personal freedom to choose.

Water needs

How does the new Orwellian-type future impact our understanding of climate change and our access to water? Our body consists of more than 60% water. Females require on average 2.2 litres of water per day. Males need 3.2 litres.

Water is the prime natural renewable resource we engage with when we start every day. It helps take care of our hygiene, but also facilitates our food intake. We take water for granted.

Conserving water in the Anthropocene era of climate change should become part of our present human condition

Daily, hundreds of water sector workers in all parts of South Africa focus on water and related infrastructure services in the country’s urban areas. We seldom take note of the work they do—except when services collapse. Infrastructure systems in many parts of the country are overworked and under-maintained.

Estimates suggest that our daily per capita consumption of water in urban South Africa stands at 300 litres. In most urbanised countries of the world, per capita consumption stands at 175 litres per day. Our water sector experts suggest we should use about 200 litres per person per day. A major drawback is that as much as 60% of urban water supplies are lost, before they reach users, because of leaking pipelines.

Water preservation

We also unwittingly waste water. Think about daily brushing of teeth while the tap water runs. Why not shower instead of bathing? How regularly do we check up on potential domestic sewage wastewater leaks? What about re-using kitchen water for a backyard vegetable patch, or the flower garden?

The human condition in the realm of water appears to be focused on consuming, not conserving. We need to revise our understanding of the human condition in the Anthropocene era if we as humans aspire to live and thrive on planet Earth.

In the era of climate change, we are bound to face extreme conditions. Water may well become more scarce than ever before. Best present-day examples are 2022’s severe summer drought conditions, forest fires, floods and exhausted water resources in North America, Europe, north-eastern Africa, and Asia.

In the Southern Hemisphere, the recent destructive fires and floods in Australasia are stark reminders of what can happen in southern Africa. Conserving water in the Anthropocene era of climate change should become part of our present human condition.

SPECIAL REPORT • LESOTHO

The nation provides water for 12 million South Africans Searching together for deeper meanings

The wealth generated by Lesotho’s abundance of water has not prevented the country from experiencing decades of degradation of an increasingly vulnerable terrain. The government, civil society, and rural communities, with technical and financial support from the international community, are tackling the problem

BY Carla Fibla García-Sala | journalist from Mundo Negro, Maseru, Lesotho

FLYING OVER Lesotho, one can clearly identify the border separating it from South Africa, which completely encircles one of the smallest countries in continental Africa. The gullies that can be seen, huge fissures in the earth, reveal the erosion which has been in action for decades and is currently being tackled with an international project led by the Department of Water Affairs with a budget of R620 million. Lesotho is known as the Kingdom in the Skies: two-thirds of its land area is mountainous and it is home to the highest peak in southern Africa, Mount Ntlenyana which reaches 3 482 m above sea level. Its 30 000 km2 area is home to just over two million people, with a per capita income of $1 187, five times lower than that of South Africa, despite having an essential natural resource, water.

Bordering South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal region in the north, the Drakensberg Mountain range runs through the country, forming a plateau in the north that ranges in altitude from 2 700 to 3 200 m and is vital for livestock and agricultural industries, as well as being the main source of the Tugela River, which flows eastwards for more than 500 km, and the Orange River, which runs through the west of the country and is South Africa’s most important river. The Caledon River’s tributaries flow along the 100 km western border in the Maloti Mountains into the South African Free State. It is possible to see snow on its highest peaks, even in summer, and in winter temperatures drop below -20°C. Its drainage feeds the Senqu (Orange) River, which flows through Botswana and Namibia, into the Atlantic ocean. According to the World Wildlife Fund, The Lesotho Highlands is a bioregion—a space larger than an ecosystem—where the soil is composed of sandstone and shale, and covered by basalt.

Arteries of dry land

The Orange-Senqu, Tugela, and the tributaries of the Caledon Rivers are the sources of much of southern Africa’s fresh water, yet, being rural and commercially limited, Lesotho is one of the world’s least developed countries—165th out of 189 according to the Human Development Index. It is located, next to South Africa, one of the continent’s largest economies, which also has a topography that is more accessible and useful for livestock and agriculture.

Lesotho is known as the Kingdom in the Skies

“The hillsides have elevations of between 1 800 and 2 100 m, dropping to 1 500 m in the lowlands. The mountain soils are of basaltic origin, shallow but rich, while in the lowlands it is sandstone underneath, so erosion has spread and severely damaged the whole territory”, explains Makomoreng Fanana, head of the Renoka movement, who works as a liaison officer between rural communities, civil society, and the government, to save both the land and the water that enriches the country.

“Renoka is an integrated management movement that means ‘We are one river’, implying that indigenous communities, professionals, experts, and individuals are all together, flowing in the same direction and we are stronger when we are united. Lesotho started to suffer from land degradation before its independence, but we have learned our lesson and we know that one institution alone cannot solve the problem, we need each other”, says Fanana, noting that his action is framed within the Department of Water Affairs, which is responsible for water control, water quality, quantity, sources, and management. “The main source of water is the wetlands, located in territories that are themselves managed by another ministry; we also have to take into account local government structures and tribal chiefs. To declare a wetland as a protected area, we have to agree and understand why and for what purpose the decision is made”, he says.

Integrated management

Ninety percent of Lesotho’s wetlands are in the northeast of the country and ensure that water flows down the rivers and reaches other regions in the south of the continent. “We aim to manage and protect the land and water, but also to improve the daily lives of the communities where the river sources are located, ensuring economic development and sustainable use for the future, for the current generation and those to come”, Fanana continues. The head of Renoka says that there were several attempts to solve land degradation, but they failed because “the approach was top-down, not balanced and horizontal”, and success was limited to the duration of the projects. “Now we are increasing people’s knowledge of what is happening and investing in behavioural change, developing community-based interventions”, Fanana says. Mokake Mojakisane, Water Commissioner, is leading this major project to combat land degradation. He has the same vision as Fanana in solving the problem: “We share water with South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia. The aim is that 70 m3 per second—currently 25 m3—will be transferred to the Vaal River in South Africa from Lesotho, to contribute 46% of its river capacity. In our programme, we integrate watershed management because our country is adversely affected by the misuse of land and the catchment areas, and it can be detrimental because we are a country with an abundant amount of water”, Mojakisane explains, noting that his country benefits from 50% of the hydroelectric power generated in the Highlands—the rest is imported from neighbouring countries. The government in Maseru, the capital, is contributing R80 million to the Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) project, which will be completed by the end of 2023.

“We aim to manage and protect the land and water, but also to improve the daily lives of the communities where the river sources are located”

The lack of financial resources in the country is preventing the development of domestic water sources from keeping pace with the population’s needs. “We have partners such as the European Union, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the German Foreign Ministry, and Arab banks, among others, with whom we were able to build the dams that supply the country’s main cities. They target urban areas, yet, the villages in the rural areas, through which the pipeline passes, do not have access to that water. That’s what needs to be changed”, says Mojakisane.

South African dependence

Every year about 800 million m3 of water leaves Lesotho for South Africa. This fresh water is not always available to communities living near the dams due to access constraints. This forces local people to resort to unprotected water sources that often become the source of infections or cause outbreaks of diarrhea due to the consumption of contaminated water.

According to the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA), between 1996 and 2020, Lesotho earned 11.2 billion Malotis (R11.3 billion) from selling 16 401 billion m3 of drinking water to South Africa. In 2020 it was more than R1 billion for 780 million m3, in what the Lesotho and South African authorities call “an example of successful regional co-operation”. On the ground, however, this has little impact on the standard of living of the people, who see their precious ‘white gold’ being extracted daily.

The contradiction of being surrounded by water to which they do not have open and free access is being addressed by Renoka, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Caritas-USA, ORASECOM (Orange-Senqu River Commission), and funding from the European Union and the German Foreign Office, which implements the project through its co-operation agency GIZ (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit).

The LHDA is developing one of the most ambitious engineering projects in Africa. The Lesotho Highlands Water Project aims at collecting water—the average annual rainfall is over 1 000 litres per m2—from the country’s main rivers and creating large artificial lakes to store it. The water will be transferred through tunnels from the north to South African rivers that reach the Vaal River Dam, on which the densely populated urban and industrial areas of Johannesburg and Pretoria depend. The initial idea dates back to the 1950s, though it was not until 1986 that an agreement was signed, yet the second phase only began to unfold in the year 2 000. At that time, a sub-agreement was created which has not been considered again, although initially, it stipulated that it should be reviewed every 12 years.

In the first phase, 27 000 people lost their homes and land after several official compensation agreements and resettlement schemes that were not without controversy. People living near the lakes suffered flooding. In 1995, the Katse Botanical Garden was established to rescue 149 types of plants affected by the flooding of the land. Animal species such as the Maluti Minnow—a fish less than five cm long and a perfect indicator of water purity—were impacted by reduced river flow. On the positive side, 4 000 temporary jobs were created for the construction and servicing of the Katse Dam, and another 1 000 at the Mohale Dam.

“A good deal with South Africa would be to increase the royalty paid for water exploitation and, in social terms, for Lesotho to ensure that the dams are not perceived as South African. The treaty should be revised to improve what we share and that its management is done by Lesotho because water is one of the natural resources on which we depend”, explains Mojakisane after highlighting the precariousness with which the land continues to be exploited.

Involving the population

Fifty kilometers south of Maseru, in the Puete (Ha Moitsupeli) wetland, there is hardly any water left. A young farmer watches from a distance as one of his cows gives birth to a calf that will soon be on all fours and be cleaned by its mother. He smiles with satisfaction as he tells us that he studies in the city, but whenever he can, he returns to the village to help his family in the fields. “I let the cows go wherever they want because there is no more water and they can graze wherever they like. They say that this area used to be very different”, he says, pointing to the ravine that has become the heart of the wetland.

“We are trying to disseminate the information to the communities to get the message across. We have done it in the north and this year it will be done in the south so that they understand that the ICM project aims to return the water to the land because we are not able to retain it. It is a work in progress”, adds Mojakisane, who stresses that this is a shared responsibility because the transfer of water depends on South Africa and the generation of electricity depends on Lesotho.

“The communities are part of the Renoka movement, it is a programme for change, and they are impatient for the interventions to start where they have not yet been implemented. They are ready, but we want the project to be owned by them, not imposed by Maseru. The communication chain works because the communities inform us, we have the technicians, we identify the challenges with them and they show us how these places used to be. We recognise the changes produced and what needs to be done”, says Fanana, after explaining that they are trying to recover the natural ‘sponges’ that retained water in the wetlands when it rained and then, in times of drought, filtered it into the ground, preventing it from drying out.

According to preliminary studies by several international organisations, corroborated by Renoka, between 63% and 80% of Lesotho’s wetlands have been lost since 2015. “There is no choice, we must act and implement projects that bring results, like what we are doing with the European Union and GIZ. We have proven that it is possible to reverse the degradation of some of the wetlands or stop their deterioration by allowing the land to rest and regenerate. We are changing land management practices and it is amazing how species that have been absent for 20 years are re-appearing”, concludes Fanana.

Investment in knowledge, such as understanding why waste needs to be removed, when and how to weed, picking up stones that spread erosion, and implementing water harvesting techniques, while including community involvement, are the keys to closing the cracks that pervade the country. At the moment, the Mohokare, Makhaleng, and Senqu catchment areas, which are home to six rivers, are implementing the ICM action plan that aims to provide ‘climate change-resilient socio-economic development in Lesotho”.

PROFILE • PROF. JOHN D. LIU

Hope in Landscape Restoration

Professor John Dennis Liu is a world-renowned environmentalist. He firmly believes in the restoration of ecosystems as a solution for the future of humanity and the preservation of the planet’s diversity. His active commitment to the cause bears witness to hope and is an inspiration for the global community

BY Marian Pallister | Chair of Pax Christi Scotland

THERE ARE many definitions of the term ecosystem, and few of them serve to make the meaning clear to those of us of a less-than-scientific mindset. Yet this is a word on which the future of our common home hangs. If we don’t have successful ecosystems, we don’t have food, we don’t have water, we don’t have life.

National Geographic’s library explains an ecosystem as ‘a geographic area where plants, animals, and other organisms, as well as weather and landscapes, work together to form a bubble of life’.

Rather more dramatically, John D. Liu says, “Ecosystem maintenance, or as we call it here ‘landscape restoration’, is key to addressing all of the problems that humanity is facing at this time.”

Commonland Foundation

‘Here’ in this case is the Commonland Foundation, a non-profit organisation with its headquarters in the Netherlands, which seeks to identify the viable solutions that our world needs. John D. Liu is its ambassador, and his words confirm what his work is all about—sharing the possible answers to the mess we have made of God’s gift to us; answers that will turn us into far better stewards of the earth than we have been in the last couple of centuries.

This requires teamwork: scientific institutes, business schools, farmers and experts all working together for global land restoration. The face of the Commonland Foundation (and indeed of landscape restoration) has become that of John D. Liu, a documentary cameraman in a battered hat who has brought into our homes the idea that it is possible to halt the damage of climate change and restore forests, agricultural land, and most importantly, sources of water where lands have been badly impaired.

Of course, this presupposes that the world’s leaders will take the actions needed to allow such restoration to continue to flourish: their pledges on renewable energy and carbon footprint reduction must be kept and improved upon.

If we want hope to take the place of the despair so many of us are feeling right now, then we need only look to the films produced by Liu which are shown around the world by major distributors. Today we can see some of his work on YouTube, just by searching for John D. Liu.

Liu has dedicated himself to the task of bringing hope to the public, and in 2013 he received the Communications Award from the Society for Ecological Restoration based in Washington, D.C, USA. A film about this eco-committed film-maker, called Green Gold, produced by VPRO, an independent Netherlands-based media organisation, won a Prix Italia award, and the aptly named Hope in a changing climate*, produced by Liu was named the best ecosystem film at the International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula, Montana State, USA.

Who is this man behind the camera, this ambassador for land restoration, determined to show the world what can be done?

Early life itinerary

John Dennis Liu is a Chinese American, born in 1953 in Nashville, Tennessee. His father was Chinese, his mother American, and much of the first half of his life was spent in the United States. Looking at the pathway of his studies, it suggests a youngster not entirely sure where he was headed.

After Bloomington High School, he studied journalism at Indiana University in Bloomington, but he also studied music at the University of Vermont. Journalism won. In 1979 he went to China for the first time because of worries that his Chinese grandmother was growing old and had not met her American grandchild, now headed for the age of 30.

There were tensions between the United States and China at that time, but the situation eased and Liu not only studied the Chinese language at Beijing Language and Culture University but also set up the CBS News Bureau there in 1981.

Opening the eyes of the world

For a decade, he worked as a producer and cameraman, but then decided to leave day-to-day journalism behind and make films. Such was his talent that he was employed by many of the major European networks to produce nature documentaries, with the BBC, Italy’s RAI, the German ZDF and CBS, screening his ground-breaking work.

He wasn’t just pointing a camera—he knew his stuff, having followed yet another study path: ecology. There was a Studies Fellowship in Applied Sciences and the Built Environment in Bristol at the University of the West in England. He stayed on in the UK to study at Rothamsted Research, one of the oldest agricultural research institutions in the world, founded in 1843 by John Bennet Lawes. Here, Liu studied Function and Dysfunction in Terrestrial Ecosystems, and we see not just his interest but also his dedication.

In 1995 Liu filmed a development on the Loess Plateau in China. The government there was funding a project to transform eroded land back into a green and productive area. It was further inspiration for Liu, and in 1997 he became director of the Environmental Education Media Project. We might say that this was when his real work began, showing the world that we can indeed restore the ecosystems we have so carelessly and wantonly destroyed. His TV documentaries have informed not just China but the world about ecology and sustainable development.

If we have realised in recent decades that since the industrial revolution, humankind has destroyed so much—in particular, biodiversity—then Liu may have been the man behind the documentary that switched on the lightbulb. He has educated us to understand that climate change’s higher temperatures are creating the desertification we see in vast areas of the African and Asian continents. But he has also taken us to Jordan, Ethiopia, and China to see where there has been re-greening of such areas—winning awards, yes, but that’s not what Liu is about. This is a man on a mission.

Landscape restoration

Liu became a visiting fellow with the Faculty of Natural Sciences and the Faculty of the Built Environment at the University of the West in England from 2003 to 2006, and in 2006 he was named the Rothamsted International Fellow for the Communication of Science. He was also an associate professor at George Mason University, Fairfax County, Virginia, USA, as a part of the Centre for Climate and Society, and a senior research fellow at the International Union for Conservation of Nature with headquarters in Gland, Switzerland. 

In 2009, he began working with the Commonland Foundation, bringing together private investments to initiate large-scale land restoration around the world. Today as its Ecosystem Ambassador he is the front man who can convince governments, corporations, organisations—and us—that habitats aren’t lost, that we can continue to grow food enough for all, that clean water and sanitation, the UN’s sixth sustainable development goal, are achievable.

In 2016, Liu founded the Ecosystem Restoration Camps movement, now grown to more than 50 camps on six continents

In 2016, Liu founded the Ecosystem Restoration Camps movement, now grown to more than 50 camps on six continents. Campers work together with local communities putting restoration strategies into practice and learning, as they work, about restoration techniques that can be applied elsewhere. Liu visualises a global network of camps supporting what Commonland calls “the emergence of a fully functional, peaceful, abundant, biologically diverse earth, brought about through co-operative efforts for the ecological restoration of degraded lands”.

Of course, landscape regeneration doesn’t happen overnight. It can take a generation to restore struggling ecosystems. However, in the Baviaanskloof and Langkloof catchments in South Africa, working with the Commonland Foundation, progress has been seen in just a handful of years. New businesses have been created, agricultural and traditional goat farming practices have improved and become more sustainable, and degraded hillsides are being restored.

Initiatives in South Africa

The South African project is just one of many that Commonland has initiated around the world. Liu has helped inspire so many people to become involved in restoring lands, especially through these Restoration Camps.

Liu sees land restoration as a lifetime commitment—and knows his lifetime is not sufficient to make the restorations our common home requires.

He has written: “We are collectively facing on a planetary scale, climate change, biodiversity loss, floods, droughts, wildfires, pandemics, inequality, food insecurity, unemployment and the potential for economic collapse.“

As chair of a peace organisation, the inseparable links that he makes between the climate emergency and peace resonate strongly with me. He says,

“As we see fault lines emerging that endanger our peace, our health, our prosperity and ultimately human civilization, it is important to learn from past efforts that we have been grappling with these questions for years and decades. It is clear that the message of hope, renewal and regeneration of natural systems and human society achieved by working for the Common Good is urgently needed and greatly welcomed throughout the world.”
As Commonland Foundation’s ambassador, Liu believes the Foundation’s approach will ensure the ecological health of the Earth in ways that are fair and sustainable for people and all life.

Prof. Liu and Laudato Si’

In 2016 he said something that chimes with Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’. Liu explained, “We have to be very careful not to commoditise nature. We need to naturalise the economy. What this means to me is that natural ecological functions are more valuable than ‘stuff.’ When we understand that, then the economy is based on ecological function.”

He added: “That is exactly what we need in order to mitigate and adapt to climate change, to ensure food security, and to give every individual on the planet equal human rights. Suddenly we are in another paradigm. It’s similar to the shift from flat earth to round earth paradigm.”

Natural ecological functions are more valuable than ‘stuff.’ When we understand that, then the economy is based on ecological function

The man behind the camera shares much with Catholic Social Teaching and with Pope Francis when he urges us to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters.

The way Liu puts it is, “We need to realise that there is no ‘us and them.’ There is just us. There is one earth and one humanity. We have to act as a species on a planetary scale because we will all be affected by climate change. We have to come together to decide: What do we know? What do we understand? What do we believe as a species?”

Liu talks of ‘the economy of love’. It’s an economy that helps to bring the water of life to damaged communities. It’s a philosophy that politicians and captains of industry need to learn.

FEATURES • CRYSTAL ORDERSON

In 2018 the city of Cape Town was about to experience the depletion of its water reserves after three successive years of below-average rainfall attributed to climate change. This situation was coined with the term Day Zero. It meant water supplies would have to be switched off and residents would have to queue to get daily water rations. The taps would run dry. Historically, if it had happened, it was going to be the first metropolitan city to run out of water.

BY INTERVIEW BY DR RUDO A. SANYANGA HUNGWE | FRESHWATER ECOLOGIST
RAFAEL ARMADA MCCJ | PRETORIA

CRYSTAL ORDERSON, a Capetonian journalist now based in Johannesburg, was living in the Mother City at that time, covering these events for various media. She now shares her experience with Worldwide

What did Day Zero mean for you?
I grew up in Cape Town and spent all my childhood there. We used to go to Steenbras Dam, now one of the main electricity sources for the city. I was always aware and mindful of water issues. Leading towards the time of Day Zero, I started noticing that the water levels were dropping. As a journalist, I had covered stories about excessive rains and droughts; but at that time, I did not fully realize that we were running out of water until the city launched its public campaign. I think the term Day Zero was meant to force citizens to respond and also served as a scare tactic.

How did the Day Zero campaign change citizen’s attitudes?
The City of Cape Town carried out an excellent and huge public campaign. Every citizen, from my mother in the township to people in affluent suburbs such as Constantia or the township dweller in Khayelitsha, became aware of Day Zero. Everyone started buying a bucket or a little bowl to put under their sinks. In the Cape Flats, pensioners and those who could not afford containers, were given buckets by the city.

They would wash their dishes and would keep that water for their gardens. In bathrooms and showers, the water was collected and used for flushing the toilets.

The concept of the one-minute shower was borne. At the gyms they installed alarm clocks that would go off after one minute. One would be embarrassed if one was still under the shower when the alarm went off.

What sector of society was more affected and what kind of responses were given to the challenge?
The tourism sector was immensely impacted by the notion of Day Zero and the city running out of water. It had a negative impact as it reduced the number of visitors coming to Cape Town.

As an individual, I got involved in teaching my daughter to be water conscious. When she washed her hands there would be a bucket underneath, and that water would be recycled. There was an acute awareness everywhere that we needed to save water and to be conscious of that.

Parallel to the campaign, the city became very proactive, looking at desalinization plants, natural water resources and water catchments from Table Mountain. The initiatives and the ingenuity that we saw coming from people, rallied Capetonians around the notion of not being able to have enough water as a resource.

Have people maintained that water-saving spirit? Is it possible that
Day Zero can happen in the future?
I think people in Cape Town are very conscious of water. I see in Johannesburg that pipes are leaking everywhere. I sense that people elsewhere in the country are not as conscious as they should be. Up to now, I still take a two-minute shower and I never take a bath. That type of consciousness permeated through the minds of Capetonians.

At the back of their minds, many Capetonians believe that Day Zero can happen, though there is water now after a few good rainy seasons.

Is desalinization a solution for the future?
It is just one of the solutions. There was much public talk about desalinization, though it is not cheap. In fact, the first city in South Africa to have a desalinization plant was Knysna. They did it as a business-driven project since they have one of the biggest concentrations of billionaires in the country. In Cape Town it was one of the projects; in the Strandfontein area, the plant is still working. Desalinization is only feasible for cities near the oceans.

In Cape Town, a combination of solutions, including harnessing water from Table Mountain was considered. One has to think outside the box. Cape Town is blessed with the natural endowments of mountains, rivers, and a long coastline, enabling it to explore several solutions. There has been research done by the Table Mountain National Project to study the amount of water Table Mountain can provide.

Looking at Gauteng, three major causes for the current water crisis have been mentioned: the scarcity of rain, the increase in the use of water and the maintenance of the distribution systems. What is your opinion about this?
Gauteng is in big disruption. Even where I live, I am shocked. Pipes are not maintained; there has been no public campaign, there is corruption, lack of infrastructure maintenance, and no public consciousness around water, yet we do not have unlimited resources. I am very concerned about Gauteng; Rand Water and Joburg Water simply may not able to keep up. All these political shenanigans. It is worrying. I have friends in Melville, Oakland Park, Brixton and hospitals running out of water. It is a disgrace!

How is infrastructure maintenance done in Cape Town?
Cape Town realized that if you apply a ‘plaster’ it’s ok but the plaster is going to come off sooner or later; to properly maintain a pipe will cost you a R100, but if you don’t do it, it will cost you a R100 million.

Whether in a township or an affluent suburb, when there is a problem, one can call a municipal free toll number and they will send people to fix it as soon as possible. If one ignores problems, leaving water pipes unmaintained and leaks unattended, one creates a bigger issue.

If one ignores problems, leaving water pipes unmaintained and leaks unattended, one creates a bigger issue.

Cape Town is not perfect. It has its problems, serious socio-economic issues and tons of contradictions; a whole lot of crime and violence, some of which is directly linked to inequality. Nevertheless, when I am in the township where I come from, I see City water staff out fixing problems and when there is an issue, it is being addressed. Cape Town has allocated a huge amount of money for maintenance. They are listening to the engineers who advise them that if they do not fix things, they will create big problems in the years to come.

I know that if I call the municipality, whether it’s a road issue, picking up rubbish, or fixing something, they try their best to come out. If not, one can escalate the issue and it is not ignored. In Cape Town, as a whole, there is an effort to fix what needs to be fixed. Because if they don’t, they are going to sit with insurmountable bills for maintenance.

Is there enough awareness of water issues in South Africa?
What is happening in the provinces of Gauteng, Kwazulu Natal and Northern Cape, in terms of water, is well known. However, there is a dearth of information in the public arena on Mpumalanga, the Northern Cape, Limpopo and the Free State. When the Water Boards submit their annual reports, we don’t pay attention to their issues. Needless to say, there are a lot of problems and corruption.

How are we preparing ourselves for a possible scarcity of water in South Africa, due to climate change?
To be honest, from where I am sitting, as a journalist, I don’t think we are doing enough. Corruption has permeated all areas of our society. We are so fixated on Eskom, strikes by Transnet workers and the price of exports going up and political leadership’s corruption, that we are not observing the Water Boards and what is happening there––the corruption and death threats. We have no idea of how to measure the millions one can make out of having access to water rights. We do not technically measure the value of water services; we tend to see water as an infinite resource.

We are not paying enough attention to what is happening with water politics, regarding old and new realities; why historical white farmers are owning rights to water, communities without water, and other issues.

In South Africa we had previous ministers, Kadah Asmal and Rony Casrils, who shaped our water policies, but now we do not think of water in the same way as they did. This is a real concern, especially for water-scarce places like Gauteng which relies on Lesotho for its water. I just do not think enough is being done––maybe it’s because water is not seen as important enough. Everyone should be made aware of what is happening and why we should care. We can live without electricity using other alternatives, but not without water.

SPECIAL REPORT • ETHIOPIA

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

The construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in the Blue Nile, planned to be completed in 2015, has taken much longer than expected. As it now takes definite shape, Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt are arguing over the future of waters on which millions of fishermen and farmers depend

BY Fr Juan González Núñez, MCCJ | Ethiopia

The dam’s identity card

Work on the Blue Nile Dam, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, as it came to be called after its initial name of the Millennium Dam, began in 2010 and was kept secret until 2 April 2011, when the then prime minister, Meles Zenawi, laid the first stone. From that moment on, the dam took centre stage in the life of the nation. Meles wanted to make it an icon, defining it with such emphatic phrases as “the monument that this generation is making for herself” or “the work that will lift Ethiopia out of poverty”.

Certainly, the project from its conception was colossal. Destined to be the largest dam in Africa, 155 m high at its deepest point and 1 874 m long. The amount of power produced, estimated at 5 600 megawatts at the time, would be more than double what all the other dams in the nation produced. It could be said to be a huge progression, both in terms of remedying the nation’s chronic electricity shortage and revenue from selling the surplus power to countries such as Kenya, Djibouti, Sudan and even Egypt.

On 30 March 2011, a contract for $4.8 billion dollars was signed between the prime minister and the company Salini Costruttori to carry out the works. Since there was no support from the international community for this construction project, the Ethiopian government decided to bear the full cost of it—rather the Ethiopian government and its people, since all mechanisms were immediately set in motion to dig into the pockets of the citizens, from investments in the form of government bonds to deductions from public employees’ salaries, the percentage subtracted from mobile phone usage, public events designed to force the ‘generosity’ of the participants. If it was the future good of the nation that was at stake, how could sacrifices not be asked for?

Egypt’s opposition

By its mere location on the Nile, the dam was bound to be controversial, because the downstream nations, Sudan and Egypt considered that its waters should be untouchable. The Nile is the only freshwater source for Egypt. The last treaty, the Nile Water Agreement of 1959, was signed by Sudan and Egypt, as sole signatories, giving the two countries full control in the utilization of the Nile waters. Egypt would have 55.5 million cubic metres and Sudan, 18.5 million cubic metres. No reference to the other countries of the great Nile River basin was made. In 1999, the other nine riparian countries launched the Nile Basin Initiative. Egypt did not support this initiative as it was seen as a threat to its water supply.

Egypt’s objections to the GERD began as soon as it heard about the project and became recurrent over the years, sometimes mild, sometimes as explosive as President Mohamed Morsi’s claim that ‘all options were open’, which in the context was understood to include an armed attack. Less forceful ones included helping dissident groups taking refuge in Eritrea, and international smear campaigns. Their limited success in these initiatives meant that in the beginning, Sudan sided more with Ethiopia than with Egypt, though now its current position is more favourable to Egypt. As a matter of fact, in October 2019, Egypt asked to resume the talks that had broken down in April of that year. Sudan and Ethiopia were not in favour of sitting down for talks again; they accused Egypt of derailing the spring talks. It is understood, by some analysts, that Egypt’s concern is not only about their share of water, but also about political dominance in the region and the government is aware that the GERD project is a game changer in many ways.

As it is hardly tenable that Ethiopia has no right to build the dam, Egypt’s objections have focused on the negative impact it will have on their country, particularly during the filling period, when the water flow will necessarily be reduced. How long can this filling period take? The latest proposal from Egypt, after a gradual reduction, puts the period at seven years with some conditions on the amount of water to be retained, a proposal that Ethiopia rejects. Addis Ababa insists that the impact of the dam on Egypt is more positive than negative, as it will help regulate water flow and reduce evaporation.

To the sound of Egyptian war trumpets, Ethiopia responded by placing anti-aircraft devices in the mountains surrounding the dam. It all looks like a staged event, as an armed attack is more than improbable, is almost unthinkable, given the international repercussions it would have, not to mention the very serious damage to the two nations directly involved.

The Metals and Engineering Corporation (METEC) crisis

Far less dramatic—but far more damaging in terms of lost time and money than the dispute with Egypt—was the crisis created by METEC, a conglomerate of companies controlled by the Ministry of Defence in the shadow of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). METEC was set up in 2010 and grew disproportionately during the period before Abiy Ahmed came to power. It manufactured both military equipment and other products for civilian use—transformers, solar panels, etc. The government entrusted it with macro-projects such as sugar plantations and factories, but also with the electrical installations of the GERD, including the acquisition of the turbines, the key to the whole project. With Abiy’s rise to power and the fall of the TPLF in April 2018, the heads of METEC were immediately called to account, raising suspicions that METEC was more of a front for capital evasion by the ruling military class than a competent company. None of the major projects had been carried out, while the money had vanished.

In August 2018, following the death in bizarre circumstances of the dam project’s chief engineer, Simegnew Bekele, Abiy’s government cancelled the dam contract with METEC. Abiy commented: “The complex dam project was entrusted to people who had never seen a dam in their lives, and if we continue on this path, the project will never see the light of day.” Months later, Brigadier General Kinfe Dagnew, the former CEO of METEC, was arrested along with 40 other senior METEC officials. Kinfe was arrested at the Sudanese border while trying to escape. These happenings caused a long delay in the works, waiting for turbines and other equipment that were paid for but never arrived.

Present and future

The five years of construction planned at the beginning turned into twelve, and there could be a few more years needed to complete the project. The task entrusted to METEC, which led to the disruption of the project, was then placed into the hands of a Chinese company. Beyond the technical side, Chinese banks have financed the new turbines and all the electrical equipment, which amounts to a third of the entire cost of the dam.

The most beautiful thing about the dam is the turbines. Initially, it was planned to install 15 turbines of 350 megawatts each. In 2017, it was decided to install 16; 14 of 400 megawatts and 2 of 375 megawatts. In total, the estimated output is 6 350 megawatts.

The lake created will have a surface area of 1 874 km2, roughly half the size of Lake Tana, Ethiopia’s largest lake. It will hold 74 m3 of water, three times the depth of Lake Tana which is only 15 m deep, compared to the 140 m of the GERD on the Nile.

The relocation of the inhabitants of the area flooded by the new lake, less than 20 000, took place, in most instances, without major difficulties. For people who live on subsistence agriculture and whose houses are built in a couple of days, relocation is a common practice. Given the abundant availability of land, the land that has been offered to the displaced is likely to be better, giving them better access to schooling, water and electricity.

Egypt and Sudan remain concerned about their share of water from the Nile

On 12 August 2022, the Prime minister of Ethiopia announced the completion of the third filling of the dam. The first was done in July 2020. Heavy rains in 2020 contributed to the early filling of the dam. Egypt and Sudan remain concerned about their share of water from the Nile. Egypt preferred that Ethiopia would defer the filling of the dam until a tripartite, binding and comprehensive agreement had been signed. Egypt applied to the UN Security Council, with concerns regarding its share in its only source of fresh water, the Nile. According to Ethiopia, the filling of the dam, if done during the rainy season, doesn’t reduce the amount of water that flows to Egypt and Sudan, but rather it controls the floods that affect Sudan badly. Currently, the negotiations between the three countries are at a standstill.

For a nation with a high percentage of its people without access to electricity, and chronic power cuts where access exists, GERD is undoubtedly a leap forward that allows Ethiopia to “leave poverty behind”, as Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said at its inauguration, and as the current Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and with him, an entire nation that wants to walk firmly on the path of progress, continues to say.