A call for urgent action in the water sector – specifically relating to dedicated water resource management and the progress relating to the Catchment Management Agencies – was made by the commissioner in the National Planning Commission, Mike Muller, yesterday in his address to the International Conference on Freshwater Governance for Sustainable Development, currently underway at the Champagne Sports Resort, central Drakensburg.

Organised by the Water research Commission and the Department of Water Affairs, the conference is taking place from 5 to 7 November, with approximately 400 local and international delegates attending.

Speaking on the second day of the Conference, Muller was discussing the role of water in development, in a session entitled ‘Water for Everyone and Everything’, when he made the call, citing that critical success factors to realising the central role water is to play in the country’s growth and development would need focused leadership, the clarification of responsibility, institutional reform, the mobilisation of resources and a willingness to prioritise.

According to Muller, water is recognised as one of the key focus areas in enabling growth and development by the National Planning Commission and ‘flows’ throughout the National Development Plan (NDP). However, to have the aims of the plan fully realised, South Africans needed to be united in their approach with citizens playing an active role in their own development, while focusing on the country’s key capabilities. This needs to be done in conjunction with ‘strong leadership, effective government and active citizenry’.

Muller added that infrastructure investments – in the broadest sense and therefore also including water resource demand management – needed to be prioritised. However, Muller found that the country as a whole needed to improve water resource management in order to deliver on the growth prospect envisioned in the NDP. Delays in the issuing of licenses alone were currently – and had the potential to continue to – affect development, according to Muller.

This improvement in water resource management could be garnered through, among other initiatives, broader water resource policies that address allocation, with serious concerns being raised about the current water administration’s ability to cope with the emerging challenges. “Unless we are critical and self-critical, we won’t as a country move forward,” said Muller.