22 March 2023 marks the 20th annual global World Water Day – and the issue of providing safe water and effective sanitation to millions of people around the world has never been more pressing. More than 2 billion people live without access to safe water, worldwide – and the focus of this year’s anniversary is on accelerating change to solve the crisis.
n 2015, the world committed to a set of 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) as part of the 2030 Agenda – and SDG 6 prioritised access to safely-managed water and sanitation by 2030 for everyone on the planet. At the current rate, the world is going to fall some distance short of that target. The latest data show that governments must work on average four times faster to meet SDG 6 on time, but this is not a situation that any single actor or group can solve. Water affects everyone, so we need everyone to take action.
South Africa is recognised as a drought-stricken country, even when experiencing above-average rainfall. The country’s massively diverse and seasonal rainfall areas mean that we are never entirely safe from running short of water – witness the dramatic flooding in KZN while the Eastern Cape continues to suffer severe water shortages.
“It’s right that no one organisation or government is going to be able to catalyse the entire planet to wake up to the dangers of not meeting SDG 6 – but individual action soon becomes group action, which could start a wave of change that gathers sufficient momentum to give humanity a chance,” says Pieter Twine, MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet General Manager. MSMVMP supports thousands of charities across the country through its partnerships with retailers who donate a percentage of customer spend every time someone swipes their MySchool card – at no cost to the customer.
The organisation has several partners who focus specifically on water and sanitation-related issues, including South African Water Warriors and More Community Foundation.
South African Water Warriors was founded in February 2016 by Deon Smit as Day Zero approached, around Cape Town. The organisation appealed for water donations from the public and distributed them to retirement centres, orphanages and soup kitchens. Runaway fires in Betty’s Bay, Wuppertal and Paarl resulted in calls for drinking water, which was distributed to these areas. The organisation has subsequently grown to support South Africans with donated water, food and animal fodder, wherever it is needed.
More Community Foundation operates a variety of community-centred projects around the country. Their Huntington Water Project in the greater Bushbuckridge area, Mpumalanga, aims to respond effectively to the water crisis in local communities, where access to clean drinking water is limited and insufficient for the village population’s needs. The effects of the water crisis there were profoundly impacting many facets of local life – including education, employment and health care and the foundation has subsequently helped alleviate the challenges by drilling boreholes in the area. The boreholes are fully managed by the Community Development Forum, with the communities developing a sustainable management plan for the water sources, chaired by a local committee.
The Woolies Water Fund was initiated in 2018 in partnership with Urban Harvest and is supported by no-cost donations via linked MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet card swipes and the Woolworths Making the Difference Platform. The fund installs rainwater tanks at schools, along with handwashing stations.
“It’s no longer enough to be ‘water wise’,” says Twine. “Whether you support an organisation helping to provide water and sanitation to areas with none or you take simple steps to change your behaviour around water at home, school and work, you’re contributing to making a significant difference to the planet’s population’s access to safe water”.
