Provincial Water Summit in Tzaneen a success
In a bid to find a solution to the water shortage challenge in the province, the Department of Water ans sanitation held a Water and Sanitation Summit in Tzaneen on Thursday.
Held injunction with Limpopo provincial government under the theme “Water is life, Sanitation is Dignity” the summit considered various aspects aimed at addressing the water shortage in the province.
Critical amongst these are issues related to water resources and services management, water and sanitation provision to households, bulk infrastructure projects and water to support economic development (supply to agricultural, mining and other water utilizing and dependent industries).
“Apart from water being essential in sustaining quality livelihoods in families, water also plays a catalyst role in facilitating local economic development, fighting poverty and averting the outbreaks of controllable diseases such as cholera.
Indeed the provision of water is an integral part of our strategy to ensure economic development and poverty eradication” said Mathabatha.
The Department of Water and Sanitation currently has a number of bulk water infrastructure and sanitation projects currently underway in the province which are aimed at resolving some of the pressing delivery challenges of the province.
The cooperation between National, Provincial and Local governments thus becomes critical to ensure that there is alignment in planning and execution of delivery.
The minister met with the premier, MEC’s and Mayor’s, prior the Water and Sanitation Summit, on Wednesday in line with provincial engagements she has been undertaking through-out the provinces to outline the department’s priorities and the support to be provided in line with the Back-2-Basics programme as introduced by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
All the projects that the Department will be supporting will have to be assessed for their readiness for implementation, expected output and effectiveness. Project monitoring and evaluation systems will have to be put in place to ensure that there is value in every Rand spent. The success of this approach will be based on the development of Water and Sanitation Plan for the whole Province based on what each District Municipality shall have developed. These Plans must be accounted for, bankable as well as indicate the capacity for implementation” said Mokonyane.Mokonyane further said that some of the success that have been achieved in the past 21 years have not been sustainable.
“The boreholes we dug, the raps we erected are non-functional. To be able to deal with the shortage of water we need to make hard decisions” added Mokonyane.
Minister of Water and Sanitation Nomvula Mokonyane, Premier Stanley Mathabatha and various MEC’s, Executive Mayors, Mayors, departments and municipal officials were among the dignirities who attended the event.
