Respect our water resources

AS THE country celebrates National Water Week from March 20 to 26, we are all reminded of the importance and centrality of water in our lives and development. Water is life.

The country joined the rest of the world in celebrating World Water Day on Wednesday.

This is significant as this celebration took place just a day after the country celebrated Human Rights Day.

Access to water is a basic human right and the celebration of National Water Week and World Water Day during Human Rights Month shows the importance of water as a human right.

It is the responsibility of the government to ensure access to water as a basic human right and it is also the responsibility of every citizen to ensure that we all have access to water by treating the available water in a respectable manner and prevent wastage and pollution of the water resources.

South Africa is a waterscarce country, therefore it is the responsibility of every citizen to practise water conservation and use the available water in an efficient way, thinking of the residents downstream.

As most parts of the country receive the muchawaited rain, we must not forget the effects of the most devastating drought that we just experienced and which is still affecting some parts of the country, like the Western Cape.

Our dams and rivers have picked up and are back to life, but we all need to remember that we are approaching the dry winter season.

This calls for all of us to prevent the pollution of our water resources and conserve the little water we have.

Water has no substitute, so it is crucial that we efficiently use and conserve the available water and also protect our water resources for the benefit of our current and future generations. Mbombela, Mpumalanga