South African water is of good quality but there is a need to be consistent and maintain such quality.
Thus the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) makes sure that its staff, being ambassadors of the department and the water sector, know every facet regarding water quality. Training in this regard is very crucial and such skills-sharing and transfers are held to upgrade officials.
The Directorate Resource Protection and Waste (RPW) under the Branch Regulation, is holding a Water Quality Management (WQM) Orientation Course entitled Integrated Water Resource Management Orientation for Water Quality Managers.
It is compulsory for all new officials dealing with water quality management to attend the course in order to familiarise themselves with the concepts of water resource management from a resource quality and waste management perspective.
The duration of the course, which is being held at DWS Roodeplaat Training Centre in Pretoria East, is a full week. Newly appointed officials in the DWS who are responsible for water quality management find it difficult to grasp concepts like sustainability, which is often misunderstood or incorrectly used because environmental management is a broad field of study.
The course inter alia provides orientation on how water quality management fits into international initiatives, developments towards sustainability and environmental management
The National Water Act, 1998 (Act 36 of 1998) (NWA) is founded on the principle that the national government through the Minister of Water and Sanitation has overall responsibility for and authority over water resources management, including equitable allocation and ensuring beneficial use of water in the public interest. The ultimate aim of water resources management is to achieve the sustainable use of water for the benefit of all users.
For more information contact:
Sputnik Ratau
Cell: 082 874 2942
