The Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, Prof Kader Asmal, MP, has announced that a conference of SADC Ministers for Water Resources Management, the first of its kind in Southern Africa, will be held at the Sammy Marks Convention Centre, Pretoria, on 23 and 24 November 1995. The conference follows the signing of the Protocol on Shared Water Source Systems at the SADC Summit in Johannesburg in August 1995 and is aimed at furthering co-operation between the SADC countries in the field of water resources management and promoting the idea of establishing a water sector in the SADC organisation. As water underpins all development, this resource is extremely important in Southern Africa with its long periods of drought, as is currently being experienced in our region.
Few people have access to clean water and adequate sanitation.
If this trend continues, even more people in Africa will suffer from water scarcity. Many water resources in Southern Africa are joint resources that have to be shared, now and in the future. It is therefore of the utmost importance that SADC countries focus their attention on effective water management strategies that will benefit the people of this region, a region where, for too long, rural people especially have been suffering due to water scarcity. The Ministers of the SADC countries will use the opportunity to give strategy direction for effective water management which will lead to increased prosperity in the subcontinent.