Premier Mabuza urges Delmas community to respect their water

Premier Mabuza urges Delmas community to respect their water By BRIAN KAJENGO Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza has urged the Victor Khanye Local Municipality citizens to be grateful and respect their water. Premier Mabuza was speaking in Delmas yesterday [Tuesday, 16 July 2013] at an official unveiling of a multi-million Rand Blomendal Bulk Water System by Water Affairs and Environment Minister Edna Molewa. Mabuza said the citizens in that municipality were “blessed and lucky” that after a very long time of scarcity of clean drinking water, finally the Blomendal project by the national department was completed and communities benefited. Areas in and around Delmas, in 1993 and in 2005 experienced waterborne diseases because the water was contaminated. Communities mostly depended on water supplied by trucks and that which came from the boreholes. “You are blessed and lucky here. In some areas wherever I go, people still do not have water. You now have a responsibility to respect this water in order for the next generations to live on it. “This is the moment of joy for the people of our province, we are minus one problem, and indeed one municipality is out of the problem. Water problems and waterborne diseases is surely the thing of the past for the people in this municipality,” said Mabuza. He warned the citizens about the bad tendency of destroying public property whenever they were dissatisfied about government that it was delaying their own development. He encouraged them not to destroy public property whenever they were disgruntled but should solve problems by negotiating. He said destroying of property “delayed freedom” as development was at standstill. People attending the ceremony at a community hall in Botleng Township publicly declared to both the Premier and the Minister that they would no longer destroy property. This follows a recent attack on a local waste water treatment plant destroyed by angry citizens. He added that there was a need to educate citizens that water was a basic need and they needed to respect it by conserving it. He said no development could fully satisfy people if they did not have access to water. “I am satisfied with the partnership we have with the minister and municipalities. We have worked in a focused way in delivering water. What is left for us as the provincial government is to resettle the people in areas where we have provided water. “It is still disturbing though that we still have many shacks mushrooming in Delmas and that there is no sanitation. While government is attending to these problems, we have to pause for a moment and celebrate today’s achievement by the government of the people. “As citizens of Mpumalanga, we are not taking this achievement for granted, water did not just come on its own, it was a collective effort by various spheres of government to respond to the needs of its citizens. We recognition the good work by our government and today we are saying ‘bye-bye’ typhoid,” said Mabuza. Meanwhile Minister Molewa said the bulk water project was part of the government’s drive to bring services to the people. She said Delmas was particularly critical as it had in the past experienced serious water challenges some of which resulted in the break-out of water-borne diseases. “Water problems are the thing of the past for Delmas people. This water could last the people here up to the year 2030 if people conserve it well by dealing with the leaks, there could be no repeat of what happened in the past” Minister Molewa. The R171 million project supplies 25 megalitres a day and is believed to be sufficient to meet water demand in the service area up to the year 2026. At least 65 percent of the population within the municipality has access to potable water on their stands.