Keep precious water resources clean, healthy
WATER is one of the most common substances and a very valuable and desirable resource. Water is an absolute essential of human life and every form of life we know of requires it to exist. Basically, water is life.
As water is life, we need quality water which then requires us to keep our water resources clean and healthy. It is a challenge to all of us to ensure that our water resources are always pollution-free as water pollution leads to certain death. Water is life, but water resource pollution is a death trap. It is, therefore, crucial that we all adopt water resources around us and keep them clean and healthy at all times.
Annually, on September 18, the world celebrates World Water Monitoring Day as a way to increase public awareness and involvement in water monitoring and protecting water resources around the world. World Water Monitoring Day is an annual international educational day to raise public awareness on the importance of the quality of water and issues of the pollution of water bodies.
Basically, the primary objective of World Water monitoring Day is to educate and involve citizens in the protection of the world’s water resources. World Water Monitoring Day engages people of all ages in monitoring the condition of local rivers, streams, estuaries and other water bodies. World Water Monitoring Day is basically a reminder of the thing that we must always do: to keep our water resources clean and healthy for quality water.
Pollution is a major risk to the quality of water in our water resources. Water pollution is a man-made problem as in some areas, people have turned water resources into waste dumping sites. The dumping of waste in our water bodies negatively affects water quality which also affects the quantity of water fit for use. This translates to the loss of precious water that we cannot afford, especially as South Africa is a water-scarce and dry country.
We also need to guard against sewer spillages as this pollution poses a major threat to our water resources. Municipalities need to ensure that their waste water treatment plants are always well maintained and function optimally at all times as sewer spillages are dangerous to the watercourses, the environment, animals and humans.
It is also important to monitor industries and the agricultural sector to ensure that they do not dispose toxic waste in our water resources.
As a water-scarce country, South Africa can’t afford to lose even a single drop of water and needs all the resources available. Therefore, we cannot afford the pollution of our limited water resources. Pollution is also a killer as it leads to water-borne diseases and kills the food sources in the watercourses, so let us do our best to prevent the pollution of our watercourses. Let us respect our watercourses and ensure that they are always protected to ensure a healthy environment and water security for the current and future generations.