In South Africa, 4.8% of people still did not have access to clean water, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa said at a Rand Water press conference, held in Johannesburg earlier this month.

The Minister indicated that this gap would be closed within the next two to three years.

“We have been thinking about ways to attack this problem and have decided to start by helping people who have never had access to clean drinking water,” she said.

The Minister added that the Municipal Water Infrastructure Grant, which was deployed last year, was currently focused on helping the 23 neediest municipalities throughout the country get access to water.

“We told the public accounts committee last month that we are not happy with how the expenditure is going, and there has been a newly revived vigour to mitigate challenges and ensure that there is quality of service and delivery,” she stated.

Meanwhile, the Minister congratulated 73 Rand Water Academy (RWA) graduates, who completed their 18-month vocational training in the fields of science, engineering and technical skills they will be attached to.

The RWA is a three-year vocational pro- gramme that is offered to qualified unemployed graduates, during which they spend 18 months at the academy before serving at the recipient municipalities for another 18 months.

Molewa said the completion of training by the graduates was an important milestone in the history of the RWA, as it symbolised the outcome of the vision it shared with the Depart-ment of Water and Environmental Affairs and the recipient municipalities – to increase the skills pool in the water and sanitation sector.

“In 2011, President Jacob Zuma called for more impetus to be placed on job creation and skills development. “In response, Rand Water established the academy in 2012 to address some of the human resource challenges facing the water and sanitation sector. These graduates will contribute immensely to addressing problems faced by munici-palities,” Molewa said.

The academy, she added, would assist in creating employment for young qualified graduates by providing critical skills that are desperately needed in the water sector.

The graduates consist of three engineers; 30 water-quality generalists, who will ensure that quality measures are maintained and who will provide accurate scientific advice on water and wastewater quality issues; and 40 process controllers, who will operate the equipment at the water and wastewater treatment plants to purify drinking water and remove domestic and industrial pollutants, a well as solids, from the water, thereby ensuring that clean water, biosolids and air are returned to the environment.