South African delegation to attend World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden
The Minister of Water and Sanitation, Ms. Nomvula Mokonyane, will lead a South African delegation comprising of numerous water sector partners and authorities attending the World Water Week 2015, which takes place in Stockholm, Sweden from 22 - 28 August 2015.
The World Water Week is an international platform that provides both government and non- governmental participants including academia, industry, experts and young innovators and professionals from across the globe to engage on a variety of issues relating to water. The World Water Week is held this year under the theme 'Water for Development' and 2015 also marks the jubilee anniversary of the week and the esteemed World Water Prize.
The Minister will hold a number of high-level bilateral meetings and also participate in a number of panels with a specific focus on water security, access to water for women and financing of water infrastructure for development.
The year 2015 represents the target year for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG's) and in this regard, South Africa already provides access to clean water to 95,2% of the South African population, far surpassing the targets laid out in the MDG's.
Forums such as the World Water Week thus provide for government and the private sector a platform to explore alternative means to guarantee sustainable supply of water and to improve our capacity to deliver water infrastructure and to operate and maintain such, once implemented, for development.
As part of the programme, the Minister will also participate at the high level Africa Focus Day and as part of the activities, host her colleagues within the African Minister's Council on Water (AMCOW) to launch the Gender, Water and Development Booklet. The Booklet is an outcome of the research study aimed at examining the extent to which AMCOW’s gender policy and strategy has been implemented in the five (5) regions of Africa. The findings of the
research study were presented and engaged upon at the Gender, Water and Development Conference held in East London, South Africa in late 2014, with a Ministerial Declaration that was further welcomed and endorsed by the World Water Forum (WWF) held in Korea in April of 2015.
Lastly, the South African Youth Water Prize Winners for 2015 will represent South Africa at the Stockholm Junior Water Prize. The three learners from Mopani District in Limpopo will represent the country and present their water conservation project, which won them the South African Youth Water Prize recently.
The Minister wishes the learners well and will personally attend the awards ceremony to support these young minds in Stockholm as part of her programme at the World Water Week.
For more information contact:
Mlimandlela Ndamase, Ministerial Spokesperson
Cell: 083 480 0014
E-mail: NdamaseM@dws.gov.za
