Water

Providing water to schools is a priority.

Good progress has been made towards supplying water to the 79 schools in the province which were identified as having inadequate water facilities. This includes the drilling of boreholes and construction of storage tanks.

All new schools built in the North West are supplied with kitchens in line with the National Schools Nutrition Programme. The province has 83 South Africa is a water- sewage-treatment plants, and scarce country and the national Blue Drop award water management system has found most of them is critical to economic need improvement. JB Marks planning. The western Local Municipality, which has part of North West Potchefstroom as its main town, is Province is particularly one of only three municipalities in dry. In the eastern the country that acts as a water Image: Sedibeng Water part of the province, service authority and as a service national government provider. It has won awards for has sent water tanks to some parts, and has upgraded the treatment its levels of service. The biggest plants upstream from the Hartbeespoort Dam. service providers active in the

Large infrastructure has been the focus of national and provincial North West are: initiatives in recent years. In his State of the Province address in 2020, • Rand Water. Premier Dr Zamani Saul announced that priority projects are currently • Magalies Water. at between 80% and 95% completion and he pledged that they would • Sedibeng Water (which has be completed in the course of the year. The following projects have taken over the service area of been completed: Botshelo Water). • Dinokana Water Augmentation. • Midvaal Water Company • Ganalaagte Boreholes and Sewer Pump Station refurbishment. supplies water to Matlosana • Naledi Water Augmentation phase 1 and 2. (Klerksdorp). • Tshing Cent Fall Sewer Line. Three of South Africa’s six

Municipalities are charged with delivering water and handling major catchment areas are waste-water but many municipalities have not been equal to the task. located in the province: the A new body has been formed to help municipalities deliver services. Limpopo, the Orange and the The Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency (MISA) falls under the Vaal. Within these catchment National Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional areas, only the Vaal River has a Affairs and will assist municipalities to plan for, provide and maintain strong enough flow to allow for infrastructure. The first action of MISA was to commission 81 engineers significant amounts of water to be and town planners. taken from it directly to support irrigation or industry. There are four water-management areas in the province, three of which are linked to the Vaal River. Water is imported into the provincial system through transfers between water basins. ■

Online Resources

Blue Drop Awards: www.ewisa.co.za National Department of Water and Sanitation: www.dwa.gov.za South African Association of Water Utilities: www.saawu.org.za Water Research Commission: www.wrc.org.za Sector Insight A new agency has been set up to assist municipalities.