The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) calls for collaborative efforts between government and communities in relation to public safety around water resources. Drowning incidents are prone around canals and other water bodies during summer season where temperatures are high, and members of the community seek to cool off.

Deputy Minister Sello Seitlholo visited the Vaalharts Main Canal in Hartswater, Northern Cape, where a 13 year-old boy drowned while swimming at the earlier this week. The body of the child was retrieved on Thursday, 17 October 2024 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 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.

Deputy Minister Seitlholo yesterday visited Vaalharts and 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.

Deputy Minister Seitlholo said: “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.

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,” said Deputy Minister Seitlholo.

Media enquiries:
Wisane Mavasa Spokesperson for the Department of Water and Sanitation 
Cell: 060 561 8935 
E-mail: mavasaw@dws.gov.za