Polokwane played host to a Water Indaba last week in an effort to create a platform to facilitate engagement around critical water challenges facing the municipality.

In her opening address to the stakeholders, Executive Mayor, Thembi Nkadimeng, said it was a reality that Polokwane was a water scarce area without any sources within the municipal boundaries and that this created huge challenges for the municipality to provide sustainable water to all.

She said economic development brought numerous changes and challenges to the landscape and greatly accelerated urbanisation.

Therefore the balancing of available resources against the array of socio-economic factors and the availability of resources remained a challenge and as a result water demand was higher than the available resources.

The Executive Mayor articulated various challenges that the municipality was experiencing with regard to water provision and interventions that the municipality was engaged in with Lepelle Northern Water and the Department of Water and Sanitation to arrest these challenges.

Inputs raised by various stakeholders including members of the public appealed to members of the public to conserve water, the municipality to enforce the law on illegal connections, cost recovery in areas where there is wastage.

“This municipality is taking a strong stance against those who continue to waste water because they can afford the surcharges by instituting on the spot fines and closing off supply to those who will be found watering their gardens,” Nkadimeng reassured stakeholders.

“As the Executive Mayor, I expect all of us to look at our commitments as a municipality and find new innovative ways in which we can unlock water challenges in our endeavour to create a better life for all,” she concluded.