The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) in Limpopo reports that it has made considerable progress in delivery of water and sanitation services in the region.

According to Chief Director of the Limpopo department Lesiba Tloubatla, the department had embarked on a drive to develop infrastructure and the refurbish ailing pipes in a bid to accelerate the delivery of water and sanitation among the communities in the province.

“In Venda we’ve constructed a pipeline that supplies water from Nandoni Dam to Thohoyandou to fill the NR5 and NR6 reservoirs. As a result there residents of Thohoyandou and students at the University of Venda receive an uninterrupted supply of water daily.”

Tloubatla said the water resource planning was critical for economic development in the province. However, he said the delivery of water would not be possible without the collaboration of municipalities such as Mogalakwena, Vhembe, Mopani and Waterberg.

There are eight dams in Limpopo that service domestic consumers and the industry. De Hoop Dam, which was launched by President Jacob Zuma two years ago in Sekhukhune District, is the biggest in the province.

He said the department was on a big drop-the-block campaign to reduce the use of water in most towns. Drop-the-block was introduced by the department in 2015 in most parts of South Africa to reduce the amount of water that is used to flush toilets. Since the introduction of the campaign the country has seen a drastic reduction of water use in the toilets. The campaign involves putting a rectangular block in the toilet cistern to reduce the amount of water that is flushed.

Tloubatla said the department communicated its messages in all the languages in order for it to reach the people on the ground. He appealed to the media to work together with the department to disseminate critical messages such as water conservation.