A master plan to save South Africa’s worsening water situation was unveiled in East London yesterday during a roadshow by a delegation from the Water Research Commission, an entity of the Department of Water and Sanitation.
The delegation was in the city to meet with water academics from the universities of Walter Sisulu, Fort Hare, Rhodes and water officials from Buffalo City Metro, Amatola Water and the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform.
Said roadshow convener, Shanna Nienaber: “The purpose is to introduce water sector roleplayers to this national plan that is trying to drive research innovation and capacity and skills that will help us to secure water for future needs in South Africa. We believe that securing these future needs requires skilled people, new ideas and new solutions and this plan helps to coordinate that.”
The 10-year plan, titled The National Water Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) roadmap, was adopted last year, Nienaber said.
The plan includes:
l Increasing the ability to make use of more sources of water, including alternatives;
l Improving governance, planning and management of supply and delivery of water;
l Improving adequacy and performance of supply infrastructure;
l Regarding water usage as a financially sustainable business by improving operational performance;
l Improving governance, planning and management of water demand and use;
l Reducing losses by detecting leaks within 12 hours and increasing efficiency of productive use of water; and
l Improving performance of pricing, monitoring, billing, metering and collection.
“With this drought we are facing in the country, the water roadmap comes in good time because it is reminding us once again that we need to have a plan for the future when it comes to thinking about water security. What this research and innovation plan allows us to do is think through what will the future jobs of the water sector be, what are the technologies we are going to need to help to make sure that we are water secure. What are the social innovation models that we have to exploit to make sure that industry, municipalities and communities are on board with how we have to look after water and work with water,” Nienaber said.
CEO of Amatola Water CEO Lefadi Makibinyane, who attended the roadshow said: “This is a great initiative ... of today that will yield results into the future, so we have to start to imagine the future that we want to see as far as water provision is concerned, and if we are not going to embrace an initiative of this nature we will always be out of pace ...” — zwangam@dispatch.co.za
Commission unveils water master plan
The delegation was in the city to meet with water academics from the universities of Walter Sisulu, Fort Hare, Rhodes and water officials from Buffalo City Metro, Amatola Water and the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform.
Said roadshow convener, Shanna Nienaber: “The purpose is to introduce water sector roleplayers to this national plan that is trying to drive research innovation and capacity and skills that will help us to secure water for future needs in South Africa. We believe that securing these future needs requires skilled people, new ideas and new solutions and this plan helps to coordinate that.”
The 10-year plan, titled The National Water Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) roadmap, was adopted last year, Nienaber said.
The plan includes:
l Increasing the ability to make use of more sources of water, including alternatives;
l Improving governance, planning and management of supply and delivery of water;
l Improving adequacy and performance of supply infrastructure;
l Regarding water usage as a financially sustainable business by improving operational performance;
l Improving governance, planning and management of water demand and use;
l Reducing losses by detecting leaks within 12 hours and increasing efficiency of productive use of water; and
l Improving performance of pricing, monitoring, billing, metering and collection.
“With this drought we are facing in the country, the water roadmap comes in good time because it is reminding us once again that we need to have a plan for the future when it comes to thinking about water security. What this research and innovation plan allows us to do is think through what will the future jobs of the water sector be, what are the technologies we are going to need to help to make sure that we are water secure. What are the social innovation models that we have to exploit to make sure that industry, municipalities and communities are on board with how we have to look after water and work with water,” Nienaber said.
CEO of Amatola Water CEO Lefadi Makibinyane, who attended the roadshow said: “This is a great initiative ... of today that will yield results into the future, so we have to start to imagine the future that we want to see as far as water provision is concerned, and if we are not going to embrace an initiative of this nature we will always be out of pace ...” — zwangam@dispatch.co.za
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