Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene January - February 2016 vol.11 no.1 | Page 7

NEWS in brief

Around Africa

Namibia
Ministry Brainstorms on Water Saving Technologies
A project team that took part in
a workshop recently will have to
find sustainable alternative sources
of portable water for both human
consumption and economic activities
to address the acute water shortage
being experienced in the country.

Hon. Pohamba Shifeta

The Climate Technology Centre and
Network (CTCN) workshop on the Identification and
Prioritization of technologies to address water scarcity
and climate change impact workshop was organized by
the Ministry of Environment and Tourism to develop and
explore these alternatives. The Minister of Environment
and Tourism, Hon. Pohamba Shifeta at the workshop said
that the adverse impacts of climate change and the fact that
it is one of the greatest challenges of our time represents a
daunting threat to our planet, ecosystems, human societies,
livelihoods and is capable of destroying the economy. “It
my hope that the Integrated Water Resources Management
Plan will form an integral part of discussions in this
workshop and that it will be further elaborated especially
in terms of costing,” he said.
According to Shifeta it is his wish to submit the proposed
list of technologies to be developed and submitted for
funding by the Green climate Fund.
The ministry in collaboration with the Climate Technology
Centre Network and the Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research has developed a two year joint research
and development project to prioritize, support and to
strengthen the funding of technologies to address water
scarcity problem in Namibia with a view to finding a longterm sustainable and comprehensive solution to water
shortages in.

The DA, has been
in contact with the
Minister of Water
and
Sanitation,
N o m v u l a
M o k o n y a n e ’s
office, requesting
that
she
immediately order
Hluhluwe Dam
uMhlathuze Water
- the incumbent
water board for the region- to hastily close the sluice gates.
It is shocking that whilst millions of South Africans, are
languishing without clean water, Minister Mokonyane’s
department is allowing drinkable water to go to waste.
Minister Mokonyane should be on top of this egregious
waste of water but she is too busy assisting in electioneering
for the ANC by dilly-dallying with the release of the Blue
and Green drop reports.
Even worse, the DA encountered indifference and
cavalier attitudes when reporting the dam leakage to the
municipality, no one seemed to care that the potable water
was being wasted. It has been over 2 days since filing our
request and the gates were only closed 10 hours ago, it is
obvious that the ANC-government does not care about
the lives of the poor - who will be forced to survive
without food during this drought.
Elsewhere in the country, Nelson Mandela Bay Metro
Municipality is losing 42.3% of its water to leakages, a
direct consequence of the government’s lackadaisical
water infrastructure maintenance programme. It is
untenable that farmers have to declare bankruptcy due to
dying crops whilst the same municipalities tasked with safe
guarding its communities are showing reckless disr