14 June 2007

By Clifford Mogotsi

RESIDENTS of Mogale City are not water wise. This was the conclusion of a British chartered geologist and water engineer, Andrew Southall, who recently visited the city.

In his general impression of the area, Southall said the big issue regarding income was that low-income groups endorsed the culture of nonpayment. However, he also said that businesses needed more education on water conservation.

"Basically, I am here to assist Mogale City to develop an action plan to build capacity in water and sanitation with the focus on water demand management, and also to educate communities on how to use water wisely," he explained.

"Businesses and communities need to be educated on how to use water wisely, and low income groups need to pay for their services."

It was his second visit to the city, made after the municipality identified problems that affected the smooth running of its water and sanitation systems. He was in the city as part of Partners for Water and Sanitation (Paws), an international organisation.

Sandile Mbanjwa, the director of the City's water and sanitation unit, identified a number of challenges, including project management, asset management, communications, water demand management, laboratories and tariffs models.

Paws was consulted to help deal with the problems.

"In Mogale City we experience too much water loss, such as leaks, and there is a lack of water management. With the assistance of Paws, we will tap into specialist skills in the water and sanitation industry," Mbanjwa said.

Southall's first visit to Mogale City, in 2006, was a fact-finding mission. On this visit he helped to set up a programme of action; he will return towards the end of the year to monitor and evaluate the water systems that have been put in place.

Paws is a non-profit partnership with members in the government, private sector and civil society. Using British expertise, it works in Mzansi, Ethiopia, Uganda and Nigeria to improve access to safe water and sanitation. It was set up in response to the Millennium Development Goal to reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation by 2015.

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