The North West Province has very limited water resources especially in the Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati and Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipalities where there are perennial rivers and dependence is largely on ground water.
The province is drought stricken and experiences high temperatures during the summer season which result in reservoir levels dropping due to high evaporation rates and this puts the water resources under severe pressure.
Due to the current climate patterns, high temperatures, the changing rainfall patterns and the increased occurrence of droughts, the province experienced below normal rainfall levels leaving most of the dams very low.
As a result, the North West Department of Water and Sanitation’s Provincial Operations is calling on all citizens of the province to use water wisely and desist from wasting water. “The province has water availability challenges and demand will be high during the spring and summer seasons for both domestic and agricultural use. The best we can do is to conserve this scarce resource”, said Mr Chadwick Lobakeng, the North West Department of Water and Sanitation provincial head.
South Africa is ranked amongst the 30 driest countries in the world hence we are urging everyone to take responsibility in water conservation to avoid future water crises. “There is nothing that can be done without water, we drink it, we use it for food security, we do mining with it, we bath with it but somehow we always forget that it is a scarce resource and plays an important role in our daily lives.”
The DWS would like to remind water users that water is a scarce resource and should be conserved, respected and enjoyed. Water is key to our socio-economic development, without it we cannot achieve our government priorities such as infrastructure development, and cannot guarantee food security without water”, reiterated Mr Chadwick Lobakeng.
Furthermore, the Department of Water and Sanitation and its key stakeholders will continue implementing various water resource reconciliation interventions in order to address thechallenges faced by the water sector within the province. These include the development and implementation of Water Conservation/ Water Demand Management intervention measures, augmentation from local water supplies, water transfers from other supply areas and water reallocation between and across sectors.
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