The Department of Water and Sanitation and the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, under the Ministry of Environment, have extended their working water-sector agreement for a further five years.

Officially extending and entering into Phase 3 of the strategic collaboration and cooperation in the field of the water sector, water use and water resources, the treaty was formally ratified by Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu and Danish Ambassador Tobias Elling Rehfeld during a dinner meeting at Waterkloof, in Pretoria East, on November 16.

Mchunu and Elling Rehfeld exchanged signed letters of extension, ventilated about the memorandum of understanding, brainstormed about a way forward and discussed water sector challenges and current trends, the DWS said in a statement released on November 17.

The Phase 3 agreement will focus mainly on activities such as technology transfer; research and innovation with the purpose of supporting entities such as Water Research Commission; training and capacity building with the intention of exploring opportunities to strengthen capacity development through training and student support; and industrial water efficiency with a view of gaining practical experience with water efficiency measures at industry level.

“Thank you for extending this agreement, we are genuinely excited about this partnership. This comes at a time when we are faced with a number of challenges in the water sector which we are confident that we will overcome, and this comes in handy, water is such an important resource, as you know it has no substitute,” Mchunu said during the signing of the agreement.

Elling Rehfeld indicated that through this partnership, issues such as water saving, recycling processes, metering and monitoring technology, will be looked at with the aim of enhancement.

“This is a continuation of the existing partnership, we are looking forward to continuing with this partnership which has been in existence for a number of years now. We hope that we are making a positive contribution,” he concluded.