Honour Madiba by protecting our water
SOUTH Africa is faced with a great number of challenges which 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 require us to come up with responses and solutions that are commensurate. 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 week, we are expected to not only diligently serve the cause of the people but to go beyond the call of duty.
We each need to ask ourselves, as a selfless servant of the people, what is it that tata Mandela would have done to mitigate the threat posed by these challenges?
Given that these challenges come with such frequency that they are now assuming a status of permanency, with dire consequences for fresh water, one is almost sure that 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 participate in the campaign to make sure that our water resources were free from pollution and thus restored to their dignity, by giving them access to clean water.
It is with this in mind that the Department of Water and Sanitation is this month embarking on a country-wide 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 the 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 using them in a sustainable manner.
The sustainable use of our water and other natural resources must form part of our long-term goal of improving the quality of life of all citizens of our country.
This is important in the light of the fact that despite the progress that has been made in providing water to communities, many communities still do not have access to water, and those who have access sometimes have to share communal taps.
The implication of this is that the quality of life remains negatively affected, as their basic needs have not been fully satisfied.
Thus, the Clear Rivers Campaign aims to make communities realise that their development is closely linked to receiving water and therefore that they have to play a major role in ensuring that it is free from pollution.
Through this campaign, communities are encouraged to take responsibility in their own hands and make their water resources the jewel that these must be.
This spirit of tata Mandela’s selfless service to the people is embodied in the work that is being done, especially by women’s organisations that are clearing the Jukskei River in Alexandra Township in Johannesburg and many others in the country.
Daily these women are living out the values espoused by tata Mandela by clearing the Jukskei River without expecting anything in return.
So firm is their belief in the sustainability of our water resources that they are going beyond being miffed about the pollution of the river, and becoming a part of the solution that is required to address the scourge of pollution that is robbing the people of much-needed fresh water.
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 ensure every day that we change the conditions that allow the people to live in abject situations that perpetuate poverty and underdevelopment.
MANDELA WOULD HAVE DEALT DECISIVELY WITH ACTS OF POLLUTION