Madam Chair, I think it is a very steep challenge that lies ahead of the hon Minister, and I hope she will rise to the challenge. What she does and what she does not do will impact on generations to come. The assault on our environment has been so sustained that, even if we were to stop right now, we could not stop the climate change that is now upon us.
The department that the hon Minister heads has completed an electricity response plan. I would like to know from the Minister when Parliament is going to be given access to this electricity response plan. It is a plan that is supposed to deal with the acceleration of environment impact assessment processing, upon receipt of an application to build a new power plant. Cope is very interested to examine this plan.
In the United States of America a whopping 97 applications for a coal-fired power plant have been rejected since 2001. The latest was in Michigan on May 2009. In Kansas, the Sunflower Electricity Power Corporation applied to build two power plants but it will only be allowed to build one, on condition that it uses new clean technology, offsets carbon dioxide emissions and develops wind energy on the side.
China, on the other hand, is building one coal-fired power station a month, where the coal is first turned into gas before it is burnt to produce extremely hot steam. Although the process is cleaner, it uses immense quantities of water. It is, therefore, one thing to concentrate on clean technology. It is quite another when water consumption is taken into account. As it stands, the excessive use of water by Eskom is a major concern for the department. With the graph depicting water consumption going up and up, can South Africa lock itself into a system where water, which is already scarce, is going to be rapidly depleted through the power generation process?
According to current estimates, the worldwide average rainfall is estimated at 860mm a year. We in South Africa get an average of only 460mm. The World Wide Fund for Nature has reported that, by 2025, there will be a water deficit of only 1,7%. This is if all things are equal. If not, the deficit could be greater. Is the Minister willing to allow Eskom to increase its water usage even more than it is using at present?
We run the risk of running out of water by being short-sighted in our planning. There is another matter which ought to be ...