New water- saving building code nears

Pini Bothoko | Tuesday March 24, 2015 12:42

Presenting resolutions after the Pitso last week, Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) Director of Infrastructure, Gaselemogwe Senai said the changes to the code were part of water conservation and demand management effort.

“This will be led by the Department of Water Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Building and Engineering Services, Land Boards and WUC,” he said.

“There will be new building standards to incorporate water conservation and rain water harvesting as part of building requirements.

The resolution comes after Minerals, Energy and Water Resources Minister, Kitso Mokaila told Mmegi that changes would be made to the building code to return the country to an era where water was considered precious and scrupulously conserved.

“We are recommending to the Ministry of Infrastructure, Science and Technology that we change the building code to say that those things that were standard at the beginning should come back,” the minister said in an interview.

“Other countries limit the number of toilets and baths you can have in your house, because they don’t want people wasting water everywhere.”

 

Last week’s Pitso also recommended curriculum changes to enhance sensitivity to water conservation among learners.

Stakeholders at the Pitso also agreed to enhance the use of groundwater, particularly by mines and the private sector, while also dedicating resources to studying underground recharge trends.

Senai said stakeholders had accepted that water conservation was not solely the responsibility of the WUC, but each consumer had to play their part.

“We are faced with a shortage of water and we have to save every drop. There are many things that individuals, companies and organisations are doing to aggravate the shortage.

“We want everyone to take part in responding to this shortage and ensure that the agreed 2015 resolutions are put into practice,” he said.