Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina says water conservation is more critical now than ever before. Delivering her budget vote speech during a mini-plenary in the National Assembly on Friday, the minister told MPs that South Africa is one of the 30 water-scarce countries in the world.
She says there is a lot of water wastage in the country and everyone needs to be involved to combat this.
In highlighting the issue of water scarcity, Majodina made reference to World Population Day, celebrated the previous day, which called for a more equitable world with access to water, health facilities and education.
“Honourable Chair, in this context, the water and sanitation in our country are not spared as well as faced with numerous challenges of our own. South Africa is one of the 30 most water-scarce countries in the world. And that is caused by economic growth as well as population growth. Yet our average consumption of water is 218 litres per capita per day, compared to the international standard which is 173 litres per day per capita. It therefore means we use a lot of water as South Africa.”
Majodina says water conservation is more critical now than ever before.
“We have to work in a collaborative manner with municipalities to ensure that we save water. There is a lot of water that is unaccounted (for) that goes down the river without being accounted for and that leaves our communities without water. Already Honourable chair and Honourable members, 75% of the available surface water has been captured in our dams and the remaining opportunities for capturing surfaces of water are also very expensive.”
MINI PLENARIES, Debate on Vote 41: Water and Sanitation (S12A), 12 July 2024 https://t.co/DVXZ2fWpF8
— Parliament of RSA (@ParliamentofRSA) July 12, 2024
Discussion on how to overcome SA’s water scarcity challenges
She warns about the impact of climate change on the country.
“The increasing impact of climate change could also result in more severe drought in the future as well as more frequent floods in 2023/2024 and now as we’ve seen in the Western Cape and other parts of the country the floods are just unbearable and they have a negative impact. While we appreciate a lot of rain, they also have a negative impact on that.”
During the debate, Thembinkosi Mjadu from the MK Party reminded the House how the war on water leaks was introduced by former President Jacob Zuma, saying water sources need to be conserved.
“The availability of water sources needs to be managed in a stable and more sufficient manner going forward to make sure we don’t have the same problem and lacking water in South Africa. We remember on 28 August 2015, His Excellency President Jacob Zuma launched the war on leaks campaign in Eastern Cape, to address unaccounted water caused by the leaking of taps and pipes, as well as illegal connection(s). President Zuma announced that the government through the Department of Water and Sanitation will train 15 000 artisan(s) and plumbers to fix leaking taps and pipes in their communities as part of promoting water conservation. The President went on to say that the government loses seven billion to water losses annually.”
