South Africa has signed an MoU with Finland and has renewed an MoU with the Netherlands to improve measures that safeguard water security in South Africa.
The South Africa-Finland MoU was signed by South Africa’s Minister of Water and Sanitation Senzo Mchunu and Finland’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Dr. Jaana Husu-Kallio in New York last week.
The MoU aims to promote water security and integrated water resources as well as river basin management.
This includes the management of groundwater and surface water, the adaptation to and mitigation of the impacts of climate change in water resources management and hydrological extremes including flood, drought, water quality, waterborne diseases and other water-related risk management, among others.
“Integrated water resources management is the dominant paradigm in contemporary water resources management. Finland has implemented such an approach for decades, aiming at win-win partnerships. It has also been the guiding principle in Finnish water legislation. Signing this MoU is a much-needed boost the sector requires back home,” Minister Mchunu stated.
The MoU with the Netherlands, which was renewed for an additional four years, was signed between the Department of Water and Sanitation Director-General Dr. Sean Phillips and Wetskills Foundation Manager Johan Oost with obligations to address skills gaps in the water supply value chain and in technical areas within the water sector, as well as to develop professional water ambassadors that can protect and manage future water resources.
Meanwhile, the Minister also met with several other countries’ leaders to discuss possible forging of bilateral partnerships on water and sanitation for the benefit of the respective countries. These include India, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Denmark, Egypt, Palestine and Belgium.
