The festive season is here. It's the time to be jolly and enjoy the festivities as we wind up the year.
Most people are at home as schools and companies are closing for the holidays. It is also a time when people get nasty and irresponsible, thereby abusing some products and wasting other critical resources, such as water.
Water is life and the security of water supply is critical for a wonderful and enjoyable festive season. As we celebrate the festive season, we are faced with extremely high temperatures that lead to high evaporation. This simply means we all need to be conservative and wise in our water use.
As South Africa is a water-scarce country and as we see that rain is a scarce commodity, it is more than crucial that we become water-wise users and refrain from wasting even a single drop of water.
It is high time that we all play our part in water conservation.
Adults need to lead the water conservation drive and be good role models and educate kids about the importance of water-use efficiency and saving water in our water-scarce country, especially as we can see that climate change is having a serious negative impact on our rain patterns, water resources and water availability.
As schools are closed, kids need to be encouraged not to waste precious water, as a drop wasted will be never be recovered.
Let us entrench responsibility and wise water use behaviour in our communities for sustainable water supply and water security for the current and future generations.
As our country is a tourist destination, it is crucial that as residents of this beautiful country we lead by example by using water wisely and sparingly and encourage our visitors to also conserve the special source of life to ensure that we continue to reap the economic spin-offs of tourism.
Without water there will be no tourism, so let us be responsible and ensure water security for socio-economic development in our country.
The high temperatures are tempting for people to take a splash in our dams and rivers.
It is therefore important that we respect the dams and rivers and always exercise caution. Kids must be under adult supervision and adults must always be sober-minded to prevent unnecessary loss of lives. Water is life, but can also be deadly when we use the water resources in an irresponsible manner.
Let us all be responsible citizens and practise water-wise behaviour to ensure that we enjoy a memorable festive season.
Imagine a festive season without water, so let us all play our part in ensuring that we all have access to the precious resource and the source of life.