Hosia Sithole, a communicator at the Department of Water and Sanitation (Gauteng Region), writes:
This month the world is celebrating the birth of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, a man who personified the values of South Africa as a country at peace with itself and other nations.
This is a man who put his professional success aside to fight for a just cause so that the people of his country could be able to work together to move South Africa from the ruins of a divided past.
Nelson Mandela was the face of struggle of men and women who clung to the belief that South Africa would rise and take its place among the family of nations.
Led by this larger-than-life father of our first democratic nation, the hope for the future of our country was palpable across the social, political, racial and class divide.
This is a man who pursued unity even though the conditions were sometimes decidedly negative, threatening to throw up the country into a state of civil war.
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A magnanimous visionary, Nelson Mandela worked with like-minded men and women around the goal of making South Africa a value-based country.
Equally accurately, Nelson Mandela’s values were not only confined to realising political freedom, but went on to include issues such as the right to environmental justice.
This right is an integral part of other rights and must never be thought of as a stand-alone right.
Thus, the right to access clean water and proper sanitation affects the right to health.
Profoundly important is the fact that this right must necessarily come with responsibilities for those who benefit from it.
For instance, the right to access clean water and proper sanitation places a responsibility on everyone to refrain from polluting water resources and destroying wetlands.
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It is, therefore, not unreasonable for one to think that Nelson Mandela would have been profoundly affected by the omission of many of us to act responsibly towards our water resources.
He would have felt repugnance at people demanding the right to access water and proper sanitation while at the same time failing to take responsibility for its pollution.
He would have been of the view that sometimes the impact of pollution of water resources is not only because of what others had done, but because of much more people being passive to what is happening around them.
It is certain that he would have said those who are not doing anything to help stop the polluters are equally guilty.
He would have frowned on those taking the easy way out by excusing themselves from acting positively because they are not the ones who caused the pollution of water resources in the first place.
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It is for this reason that the Department of Water and Sanitation, in partnership with communities and various civil society organisations across the country, is celebrating the birth of Nelson Mandela through the Clear Rivers Campaign.
This campaign is aimed at actively engaging communities and promoting ongoing awareness and education on protecting the country’s water resources.
As we celebrate Mandela Month, we are all called upon to be active contributors who shape the life of this country. We are called upon not to be spectators as our country’s life-giving water resources are suffocating under the weight of pollution and degradation of the environment.
Evoking the name of Nelson Mandela in the month of his birth is surely going to ring hallow as we avoid challenges of water pollution.
Our best gift to him would be for us to become subjects of change for the better in our country.
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