Cape Town - Every South African could be a water-wise ambassador.
Social activist Yusuf Abramjee made the appeal for Capetonians and all citizens of South Africa to join the #SaveWater initiative, which was launched at the Cullinan Hotel in Cape Town on Thursday.
“We want to make sure that this initiative will make a difference, and we want to take this message to every corner of South Africa. My appeal to South Africans is join this movement and make a difference to save water,” Abramjee said.
The initiative will serve as a platform to strengthen communication among various stakeholders and communities to increase its efforts to preserve water. At least 110 ambassadors have already pledged to partner with the Department of Water and Sanitation. Some of the ambassadors include Abramjee, Miss Earth SA Catherine Constantinides, Tsogo Sun, South African Rugby Union and the Muslim Judicial Council.
The Cape Argus has also pledged its support. A special online portal dedicated to its latest campaign #EveryDropCounts will be going live this week.
“While we try and meet that target of using 50 litres of water or less, there are people who don’t have. And that is the reality we are sitting with. It’s unfortunate that we needed a crisis to get people to pay attention,” Constantinides said.
We needed to protect the precious resource, she added.
“We all need to be committed on a daily basis to make a difference and to change our behaviour,” Constantinides said.
The work of the initiative will not only run in Cape Town but is set to operate throughout the entire country.
Abramjee said that he wants the Competition Commission to keep a close eye on the prices of water and beware of price fixing.
“We don’t want our consumers to be taken for a ride and we need to be careful because people are profiting off of our crisis,” he said.
Cape Argus Live editor Lance Witten said the time for pointing fingers is over.
“The time for blaming officials for not doing enough is over; we are dealing with real humanitarian crisis here,” Witten said.
It was exactly a year ago when the Cape Argus released its two-minute shower song. At the time the City of Cape Town implemented level 4 water restrictions.
The song received unprecedented support from hospitality centres and radio personalities, and received over 16 000 views on its Facebook page. Witten said that the special portal that’s expected to be launched this week will serve as a platform for residents to share their water-saving initiatives.
@MarvinCharles17