Forum to work as a bridge between department and communities
The Department of Water and Sanitation in conjunction with the Mopani District Municipality held a meeting last week with the District Water and Sanitation Forum’s chairpersons and secretaries representing their local municipalities.
The aim of the meeting which was attended by the representatives of Greater Letaba, Maruleng, Greater Giyani, Ba-Phalaborwa and Greater Tzaneen local municipalities was to engage the Mopani District Municipality regarding the establishment and the launch of the District Water and Sanitation Forum.
“Water and sanitation forums need to be established, revived and strengthened across all provinces, metros, district and local municipalities in order to extend the stakeholder relations,” the Minister of Water and Sanitation Minister, Nomvula Mokonyane in her 2015 budget speech.
According to the Department of Water and Sanitation spokesperson, Sputnik Ratau, the department has since managed to establish the Water and Sanitation forums in all the five local municipalities under the Mopani District Municipality, with the purpose of making sure that communities have representatives in the municipalities, and also that the municipalities have got an ear within its communities.
“Issues pertaining to service delivery, more especially in the water and sanitation sector will be dealt with much quicker as they will get to the relevant authorities faster with the community forums,” said Ratau.
He further said that most community protests are caused by the lack of information by community members, so the community forums will be able to communicate everything that the department together with the district and local municipalities are planning to do for their communities.
Problems will then also be detected faster and solutions be sought by those responsible.
At the same meeting, it was agreed that the Mopani District Municipality Water and Sanitation Community Forum will be established and launched on March 14.
“As the district municipality is the Water Authority to all the local municipalities, the forum will consist of officials from the district together with members of the mayoral committee and also representatives from all local municipalities’ community forums, as that will allow the forum members to report back to their constituencies information that is reliable about issues they have raised with them,” he added.
