It is that time of the year when South Africa is celebrating the National Water Week, 17-23 March 2014. National Water Week, which starts today, is an awareness campaign which is re-iterating the value of water, the need for sustainable management of this scarce resource and the role water plays in eradicating poverty and under-development in South Africa
In celebration of this week, the Municipality is hosting the Student Water and Sanitation Conference on Thursday, 20 March. The Conference is aiming at involving the youth in water and sanitation matters at an early stage.
Mayor, Cllr James Nxumalo said, “The Municipality wants the youth to value and realize the importance of water. We intend to be advised by the youth as to how best the Municipality can reduce non-revenue water (water-loss) and illegal use of water, how we can recycle water or if there can be any need to desalinate sea water and if so, how this could be done. We also want to establish from the youth themselves if they think the solution lies with the building of more dams.” This youth congress will further be aiming at offering forward-looking solutions to meet future water challenges and scenarios.
The Municipality is celebrating the National Water Week under the theme “Water is Life – 20 Years of Water Delivery for Social and Economic Development”. The theme coincides with South Africa’s celebration of 20 years of freedom. This theme presents an opportunity for the Municipality to reflect on how freedom and democracy was achieved; the progress of water provision made in the past 20 years and how citizens will work together to implement Vision 2030.
Amongst other things during the conference, students will collectively devise strategies to better address the issues such as water crisis in South Africa and investing in the youth as the future generation that will enhance environmental sustainability in the country. The National Water Week comes in the wake of Mayor Nxumalo’s recent launch of a massive Clean and Maintain My City Campaign to address environmental challenges and ensure that, together, we build a sustainable City.
