Get behind the Clear Rivers Campaign and safeguard our water supply
SOUTH Africa is faced with a great number of challenges that include, but are not limited to, climate change, toxic waste and water pollution.
These challenges pose a serious threat to life as we know it, and therefore require us to come up with responses and solutions that are commensurate with the danger they represent. We must therefore put these issues high on our list of priorities.
As we invoke the legacy of the father of our democratic nation, Nelson Mandela, and celebrate his 100th birthday this month, we are expected to not only diligently serve the cause of the people, but also to go beyond the call of duty. We need to ask ourselves what, as a selfless servant of the people, would Tata Mandela have done to mitigate the threat posed by these challenges?
Given that they come with such frequency that they are now assuming a status of permanency, with dire consequences for fresh water, one is almost sure the former statesman’s response would be to rally all South Africans around the goal of clearing our water courses, rivers and dams. He would have dealt decisively with acts of pollution that are so rampant in our communities today.
He would not have spared his energies to ensure that all of us participated in the campaign to make sure that our water resources are free from pollution.
It is with this in mind that the Department of Water and Sanitation is this month embarking on a countrywide Clear Rivers Campaign. Through this campaign, the department is taking a baton that has been passed to all of us to carry on the project of safeguarding our natural resources so that through their use we are able to benefit all people across the economic divide.
It is therefore not enough to celebrate the birth of Tata Mandela. We must walk in his shoes by living out his values in our daily lives and protecting our water resources, and use them in a sustainable manner.
This is important in light of the fact that despite the progress made in providing water to communities, many still do not have access to it, and those who do sometimes have to share communal taps.
Thus, the Clear Rivers Campaign aims to make communities realise that their development is closely linked to receiving water. Through this campaign, communities are encouraged to take responsibility and make their water resources the jewel that they must be.
This spirit of Tata Mandela’s selfless service to the people is embodied in the work that is being done by especially women organisations that are clearing the Jukskei River in Alexandra Township in Joburg, and many others in the country. Daily these women are living out the values espoused by Tata Mandela without expecting anything in return.
So firm is their belief in the need for sustainable water resources that they are going beyond being miffed about the pollution of the river and are becoming a part of the solution.
As we celebrate the birth and legacy of Nelson Mandela, we are called upon not only to participate once in a while in campaigns such as Clear Rivers, but to every day ensure that we change the conditions that allow the people to live in abject conditions that perpetuate poverty and underdevelopment.
Sithole is a communicator at the Department of Water and Sanitation (Gauteng region)