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SA to adopt water plan
04/05/2006 19:37 - (SA)
Johannesburg - A "water plan" is to be adopted to meet South Africa's development targets, said the water affairs department on Thursday.
The department's director general Jabu Sindane said that an integrated, inter-sectorial water plan was to be adopted in order to meet the country's development targets while conserving resources.
Sindane said Water Affairs Minister Buyi Sonjica had visited all nine provinces and investigated each of their water and sanitation challenges.
Representatives of each province, the SA Local Government Association and the private sector would deliberate at the summit, called "water for growth and development".
Basic sanitation
The department and government had set targets in line with the United Nations Millennium development goal. The department aimed to eradicate the bucket system by next year.
The government had set targets for all South Africans to receive water by 2008 and for all communities to receive basic sanitation by 2010.
Johannesburg city councillor, Rose Greef, outlined the city's five-year plan of action on water emphasising the importance of not taking the resource for granted.
Greef said: "South Africa has less water per capita than Namibia or countries that we think of as dry like Australia... we need to guard against complacency in our forward planing."
Johannesburg's plan of action on water included interventions such as strong water harvesting and improving delivery.
- SAPA
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