Minister of Water and Sanitation, Nomvula Mokonyane unveiled a budget of R16 446 530 000, 00 to improve water accessibility to the country’s citizens for the 2015/16 Financial Year.

Addressing Parliament during her Budget Vote speech last week the Minister said the key driver to realise this feat, was the adoption of the National Development Plan (NDP) as a program that will take South Africa forward towards radical socio-economic transformation.

Minister Mokonyane said that in terms of the Department’s Vision Statement and that of the of the government, the NDP recounted the story of the journey the country shall have travelled by 2030, adding that “the eloquence of the story is not only captured in the pain, anguish, exhilaration and triumphs of the journey, but also in the poetic execution thereof”, said the Minister.

She said that in the quest for giving impetus to the National NDP, the government found it befitting to establish a new Department of Water and Sanitation to ensure that the ideals of the Freedom Charter were realised, especially Clause 9, that says: “There Shall be Houses, Security and Comfort.”

In this regard, the Minister added, houses speak to the issue of integrated and sustainable human settlements, progressive spatial development and the building of strong local government. Security addresses the issues related to food security, public safety and living free from discrimination.

And lastly, comfort speak to the absence of conflicts, access to water and sanitation as well as access to equal opportunities, inclusion and redress.

The second National Water Resource Strategy 2 (NWRS2) will continue to apply a seamless integrated approach to managing our water resources.

This is a co-ordinated approach that is inter-dependent and inter-related to other Departments at National level, other spheres of government, the private sector, civil society, and to the people.

“This approach will ensure that we provide a sustainable and holistic value chain of water supply, from source to tap and from tap back to source,” The Minister concluded.