The North West is in the process of developing a provincial master plan to respond to the region’s current of water and sanitation challenges.

Speaking at the recent Provincial Water Summit, Motlalepula Rosho, North West MEC for Local Government and Human Settlements, identified the need to streamline sources of infrastructure funding to address the serious challenges of operation and maintenance of water and sanitation infrastructure.

Rosho stated that the department would continue to engage with representatives from the agricultural, economic and education sectors in an effort to get their inputs into the master plan, which is expected to guide the water with investment planning for the development of water and sanitation services.

“Our province is predominantly rural and mostly [relies] on underground water and we need to do studies to further explore this as an alternative source of water to address the current challenge,” she said.

“We will continue to work with municipalities, sector departments, academics and other role players and develop a provincial water master plan that we can, at the end of the day, own up.”