Water and Sanitation Deputy Minister, Sello Seitlholo has conducted a site inspection of the Vaalharts Main Canal in Hartswater in the Northern Cape following the drowning of a 13-year-old boy.
The body of the child was retrieved on Thursday between Magogong and Taung, about 20 kilometres away.
The Vaalharts Main Canal stretches about 140 kilometres from the Vaal River at Warrenton in the Northern Cape, passing through the towns of Jan Kempdorp, Hartswater, Magogong, Taung and ends at the Pudimoe Water Treatment Works in Pudimoe, which ultimately treat and transfer potable water to Vryburg in the North West.
The canal is part of the Vaalharts Water Scheme which has about 1200 kilometres of canals managed by the Water User Association (WUA), of which the Vaalharts Main Canal is the longest and largest.
READ | Public warned against swimming in water canals
During his visit on Saturday, the Deputy Minister met with the Vaalharts WUA, Phokwane Municipality to address safety concerns around the canal, before visiting the family of the child in Bonita Park informal settlement.
“I’m concerned by the consistent incidents of drowning in this community. We’ve engaged consistently with the Water User Association on what we can do as a department to prevent future incidents of drowning. The WUA is currently undergoing a process of capacity building and have identified volunteers that are currently on training on how to behave around water and have taken the programme to schools.
“We hope we will have individuals within a radius that will be able to respond quickly to incidents of drowning.”
“Fencing is unfortunately not a sustainable solution to the current state of the canal as far as curbing future incidents of drowning. The department conducted the decommissioning of the fencing when the fence around the canals was stolen. I visited the family to send personal condolences on behalf of the Department of Water and Sanitation. As government, we have a responsibility to show families that we do care and to explain why we cannot fence these canals. Our sincere condolences go out to the family and the community of Bonita Park. No parent should bury a child.”
He added that education drives will continue.
“We will continue with efforts to educate communities that are living around canals about safety so that they desist from using these canals for recreational purposes,” he said. -SAnews.gov.za
