A clean river starts with me: Feedback given on Blue Deal SA partnership

A clean river starts with me! That was the message spread on Saturday when representatives of Dutch Water Authorities involved in the Blue Deal SA Partnership, Vaal Action Group, Ngwathe Warriors, and the mayor and senior personnel of the Ngwathe Local Municipality joined hands in cleaning the river at the entrance at the Parys Golf & Country Estate.
The clean-up was done in celebration of World Rivers day where people across the world undertake river clean-ups. It coincided also with the local Heritage Day celebrations.

The group managed to fill about 20 bags of rubbish. Sadly littering was seen in this area only a day after the clean-up, highlighting that much will have to be done to create awareness among communities for a cleaner environment and rivers for which all of us have to take responsibility.
This was also emphasized at a stakeholders meeting on Monday for the The Blue Deal South African Partnership.
The partnership was launched in 2019 between the Dutch and South African governments and will end in 2030. Projects launched as part of this initiative also forms a part of the National Water & Sanitation Masterplan for SA, with an estimated 2,5 million people in at least 3 water management areas in the country that will benefit from the initiative with better acces to clean and sufficient water by the end of 2030.
The first phase included 4 projects of which one was launched in the Vredefort Dome area.
Although the initiative does not make provision for capital investments, the main focus is to create long-lasting partnerships, and to exchange knowledge. For the Vredefort Dome project, the Dutch Water Authorities took hands with Vaal Action Group, MISA/Cogta, SALGA, Department of Water & Sanitation, WRC and the Ngwathe Local Municipality, with the goal to improve the water quality of the Vaal River in the Unesco World Heritage Site.
It also aims at optimisation of the Parys Wastewater Treatment Plant, estimated to benefit 50 000 people in the Parys area plus the downstream population.
In his feedback on the Vredefort Dome area project, Mr Eric Kuindersma, the Dutch Blue Deal Project Leader said that until now activities for the project included the improvement of the Wastewater Treatment Works in Parys, community/stakeholders who were made part of the project, and political commitment towards the goal for the project. Funding, monitoring and communication though remains a challenge.
They will now move towards phase 2 of the partnership running from 2023-2026. The focuss for phase 2 will again be on the Wastewater Treatment Works in Parys, community involvement such as the past weekend’s clean-up campaign, and monitoring.