Save water, residents urged
By Tabisa Mntengwana
25 March 2010
WATER Week was marked by a Buffalo City awareness event in Duncan Village.
Water Week, a national initiative, is held annually, usually to coincide with World Water Day on 22 March. This year it ran from 15 to 21 March. The Buffalo City awareness event, on Friday, 19 March, focused on ways to save water.
Involved in the campaign was the City’s waste management and water departments, the Duncan Village Dense Settlement Project, local schools and the national Department of Water Affairs.
According to the
www.dwa.gov.za national department’s website, the week is aimed at highlighting, among others, the need to conserve and protect water and to use it sparingly as it is a finite resource. The theme of the week was “Together we can save more water”.
Buffalo City’s Water Week kicked off at Gompo Community Hall with opening remarks by Nwabisa Mali, the programme co-ordinator of the Duncan Village Dense Settlement Project. “This is a week where we make people aware of the consequences of wasting water, it is important for the people of Duncan Village to preserve and learn about better ways of saving water.”
She emphasised that water conservation did not end with the end of Water Week but “it should be carried out all year round”.
Encouraging residents to save water, the municipal water administrator, Mcebisi Kambi, said: “It is important for us to use [as little] water as possible but at the same time look at all health and hygiene standards.”
The day ended with a river clean-up. The Mzonyana River was cleaned by the guests, volunteers from Duncan Village and Duncan Village cleaners.
According to the Department of Water Affairs website, South Africans can save water through various activities, including adopting and cleaning rivers, reporting leaking and burst pipes, fixing leaking taps and using a bucket to wash cars instead of a hosepipe.
Other water saving tips are:
- Don’t leave taps dripping;
- Don’t put anything down the toilet besides toilet paper;
- Fill the kettle with only with the amount of water you need;
- When using a washing machine, wash a full load to reduce water usage;
- Report all significant water losses to Joburg Water’s 24-hour call line;
- Store drinking water in a bottle in the refrigerator instead of turning a tap on each time you want to drink water;
- It is far better to shower than to run a bath;
- Don’t leave the tap running when you brush your teeth, shave or wash your hands; and
- Water lawns and gardens in the evening when temperatures and wind speed are the lowest, as this reduces loss from evaporation.
For all water queries in Buffalo City, call 043 705 9234/5/6.
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