BACKGROUND
The need for water security, particularly in the face of global climate change and a multitude of anthropogenic impacts affecting our rivers, calls for a national
and unified approach to protect our rivers, wetlands and broader catchments, such that all people can benefit from the added-value products of healthy rivers and can
have access to clean water for basic human needs. It is for this reason that the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) would like to connect South Africans to their
sources of water and the natural infrastructure that are crucial for a water secure future.
In order to achieve the above DWS will be clearing up rivers, form part of the theme of Mandela Month 2017. This is linked to the call by the State President
in the State of the Nation Address of 2014, when the State President called on all South Africans, in the spirit of volunteerism, to dedicate 67 minutes to clean South Africa.
DWS together with the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), one of the world’s largest and most respected independent conservation organisations, with almost 6 million
supporters and a global network active in over 100 countries, the Strategic Water Partnership Network as well as the National Business Initiative (NBI) that has
an affiliation of hundreds of South African corporates; are the official partners to the DWS in the Clear Rivers Campaign.
The campaign will take place during the month of July 2017. It will be closely associated with volunteerism that is promoted during July, as part of the Mandela Month activities.
Mandela Day 18 July 2017
|