The first intake of trainees of the recently launched War on Leaks Programme officially started their training programme on Monday.

The War on Leaks Project was launched by President Jacob Zuma on 28 August 2015 during an event held at Dan Qeqe Stadium, in Port Elizabeth.

The launched followed the announcement made by President Zuma during his State of the Nation Address in February this year, where he said that government would launch the programme, which is designed to train young people to curb water losses that are costing the country R7 billion a year.

He said that through the Department of Water and Sanitation, 15 000 artisans or plumbers would be trained to fix leaking taps and pipes in their communities as part of promoting water conservation.

A three-phased approach has been identified for the recruitment, training and deployment of the plumbers, artisans and water agents over the project period.

The distribution in terms of numbers recruited, trained and deployed over the five year project period will include a 3 000 intake in 2015, 7 000 intake in 2016 and 5 000 intake in 2017 to make up the total of 15 000.

The Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation, Pamela Tshwete, will on Monday officially meet the first intake of trainees of the programme.

The event will take place in East London, Eastern Cape, where part of the initial 3 000 selected learners will start their training.

The rollout of the training will take place across the country where the recruits are going to be trained as artisans, plumbers and water agents.