Stakeholders address water and sanitation challenges
The Water and Sanitation innovation conference took place at Birchwood Hotel on November 10.
The Minister of Water and Sanitation, Gugile Nkwinti, has called on all sector stakeholders in the water and sanitation sector to help find workable solutions to address the service delivery challenges that plague the sector.
Addressing about 450 delegates, who included sector leaders, experts, academics and innovators, Nkwinti lamented the fact that despite so many innovators in the sector, South Africa was still being confronted by many challenges.
The interactive session is Nkwinti’s response to a number of sector stakeholders and innovators who have inundated his office with offers of solutions to challenges in the sector.
The session ensured the sector taps into new local technologies and solutions to ensure it deals with challenges decisively.
“The country has been faced with a serious challenge of capacity and this highlighted the spillages in municipalities as examples of a number of critical problems that required attention and innovation.
“Our Waste Water Treatment Works does not have the capacity to cope with the developments taking place, hence the question is, what is it that technology can do to address these and other problems we face?
“So, we have to work together to find innovative solutions,” Nkwinti said.
Dr Washington Nyabeze, a well-renowned researcher in the water industry, identified several problems that served as bottlenecks to the delivery of water and sanitation by government.
He advised the department to make water accessible to the poor by making it cheap.
He said one of the main problems that plague South Africa was the pollution of water and called for the prosecution and imprisonment of culprits.
“The problems faced by the country on sanitation could be addressed by the decolonisation of the mindset and a speedy movement towards resilience.
“The department must accelerate the establishment of water catchment management agencies to address water issues at the local level.
“It is unacceptable that 20 years on we only have two water catchment management institutions,” he said.
The department’s deputy director general of Special and Strategic Projects, Trevor Balzer, presented the National Water and Sanitation Master Plan that will address the country’s water challenges by 2030 and beyond.
The plan has been approved by Cabinet and it was in the process of being addressed through Parliament.
Balzer said there were three million South Africans who still did not have access to drinking water and 14 per cent who lacked proper sanitation.
He added the agriculture industry used 61 per cent of water for commercial use and irrigation while municipalities used 27 per cent.
“South Africa lost about 50 per cent of its wetlands and the state of rivers was appalling,” Balzer said.
ALSO READ:
Metro incubates future water and sanitation professionals |
Follow us:
For more #hyperlocal news at your fingertips, visit Benoni City Times, Springs Advertiser, Brakpan Herald, African Reporter and Kathorus Mail
