The Department of Water and Sanitation will host a week-long National Water and Sanitation Summit aimed at providing South Africa with an update on the planned and implemented interventions on some of the water and sanitation challenges facing the country. The Summit will also profile the work done by the engineers and scientists of the Department.
Scheduled from 22 – 25 March 2022, the Summit is organised as part of the commitments made by Minister Senzo Mchunu, after the Minister held working sessions with Premiers in different provinces, across the country.
The theme for the Summit is South Africa is a water scarce country which reflects the strong message that the sector is sending to South Africa. It is commonly known that the average water use in South Africa is more than three times than that of the global average water use. With this theme, the Minister and the sector wishes to remind South Africa that we should use water more sparingly and more efficiently.
The United Nations World Water Day theme for year 2022 is Groundwater – making the invisible, visible and this will be the sub-theme of the Summit.
Groundwater is an important contributory source of water, in addition to surface water. The increased use of groundwater is desirable since it is accessible to most households, fairly cheap, and fast to develop. Furthermore, most of South Africa’s groundwater is of potable quality. The Summit will therefore showcase different aspects of the work by geohydrologists and other scientists in optimising groundwater.
A wide variety of topics will be explored by the Summit, these include an update on the creation of the Water and Sanitation Infrastructure Agency, given that the Agency is positioned as the entity of choice for investing into water and sanitation infrastructure. Other topics include lessons learnt from managing water losses at Beaufort West Municipality in the Western Cape, eutrophication, adapting to climate change and many more.
Notable side events include the Awards for the Blue Drop Green Drop Water Quality Programme that will profile the results for all municipalities across the country.
The National Water and Sanitation Summit will be a hybrid event of in-person, virtual conferencing, radio as well as social media platforms. This is to ensure that broad audiences have access to the content of the Summit.
Disclaimer: This content is sponsored by the Department of Water and Sanitation. The purpose of this news article is to provide you with an overview of the National Water and Sanitation Summit. The news article is not in any way a political advert. Please contact the Department of Water and Sanitation should you have questions or need further information / assistance. We accept no responsibility for your interpretations or actions taken on the basis of this publication.
