The Premier called upon all Free Staters to play their part to conserve and save water.

Furthermore, the call by the Premier is to ensure that all our people should be actively involved in the efforts to save water and fight against the devastating effects of global warming and climate change that have led to the drought that is threatening our country and our province.

Over a number of years we have been working hard to enable all our people to gain access to clean water for drinking, household use, agricultural, industrial and decent sanitation. We have been working hard to replace the aging infrastructure and investing in new infrastructure, said Magashule.

It is our collective responsibility to act urgently and adhere to new measures that are being put in place throughout the province to save water.  Failure to adhere to these will have dire consequences to households, crops, animals, and business operations, emphasized Magashule. 

The stakeholder committee as convened by the Premier seeks to deal with the details with regards to how the effect of the drought to farmers will be handled and how the awareness campaigns and drought mitigation programmes will be implemented and their impact measured.  

The citizens will have to bear with us as we implement the following measures:

• Water restrictions
• Pressure and Valve Management and
• Water rationing

All these measures are being implemented because the end user supplier (municipalities and water utilities) cannot meet the demand as a result of the drought.  Communities are therefore urged to use water sparingly. 

Issued by Free State Provincial Government Communication Services