The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) and the Danish Environmental Protection Agency (DEPA) under the Ministry of Environment (MoE) have officially extended and entered into Phase 3 of their strategic collaboration and cooperation in the field of the water sector, water use, and water resources.

This means that the working agreement will be in place for a further five years.

The treaty was formally ratified by the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu and Danish Ambassador, Tobias Elling Rehfeld during a dinner meeting at Waterkloof in Pretoria East.

Minister Mchunu and Ambassador Elling Rehfeld exchanged signed letters of extension, ventilated about the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), brainstormed about a way forward, and discussed water sector challenges and current trends.

Phase 3 agreement will focus mainly on activities such as technology transfer, research, and innovation with the purpose of supporting entities such as Water Research Commission, training and capacity building with the intention of exploring opportunities to strengthen capacity development through training and student support, and industrial water efficiency with a view of gaining practical experience with water efficiency measures at industry level.

Minister Mchunu expressed gratitude to the Danish government for the assistance they provide to ensure water security in South Africa.

“Thank you for extending this agreement, we are genuinely excited about this partnership, this comes at a time when we are faced with a number of challenges in the water sector which we are confident that we will overcome and this comes in handy, water is such an important resource as you know that it has no substitute,” Minister Mchunu said.

Furthermore, the Danish Ambassador indicated that through this partnership issues such as water-saving, recycling processes, metering, and monitoring technology will be looked at with the aim of enhancement.

“This is a continuation of the existing partnership, we are looking forward to continuing with this partnership which has been in existence for a number of years now, we hope that we are making a positive contribution”, Ambassador Rehfeld stated.