Deputy Ministers of Water and Sanitation David Mahlobo and Dikeledi Magadzi will facilitate a two-day mid-term workshop on sustainable development goals (SDG).
The workshop, which will be held in Pretoria on Wednesday and Thursday, will shine the spotlight on water and sanitation crisis ahead of the UN Water Conference in March.
The workshop will also assess the status of SDG, which is a call for clean water and sanitation for everyone by the year 2030, and unpack opportunities to overcome the challenges and increase the delivery of SDG.
Also on the agenda is the quality of drinking water in South Africa, the impact of climate change on water security, integrated water resource management, as well as safe sanitation and hygiene.
About 13.4-million people had access to basic water services during the first decade of South Africa’s democracy. However, a tap in a home or yard is not a guarantee that clean water regularly flows through it.
In some North West and Limpopo communities, dry pipes briefly spurt out in the early hours of the morning and the residents who do not set an alarm to wake up early and the fetch water, must wait until their next appointment, which might take days in some cases.
In Gauteng, the province is bearing the brunt of water shortages caused by dwindling reservoir levels due to high demand of water.
As taps are running dry, Ferrial Adam, water and environment manager for Community Action Network, believes ageing infrastructure and inequality are to blame for water crises.
“We cannot deny that there is an additional element affecting people’s access to water and that is on a local government level and municipal level.” Adam said.
“You have infrastructure deterioration and that is also leading to people not having sufficient water. There’s also the element of unequal distribution of water in South Africa. Less than 40% to 45% have taps in their homes.”
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