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Over the past several months Nelson Mandela Bay has been grappling with severe drought and water scarcity issues. The situation has since become critical and many residents are now at risk of not having any water.

“Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) together with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), through their Beyond Advocacy Fund (BAF), have partnered with the National Business Initiative (NBI)’s Technical Assistance Mentorship and Development (TAMDEV) programme to assist the municipality with its drought mitigation plan,” says Olivier Serrao, executive of strategy at BLSA.

He says that BAF represents the South African private sector’s aspiration to move “beyond advocacy” and towards deeper public-private dialogue and cooperation to jointly address strategic socioeconomic challenges facing the country.

TAMDEV is conceptualised as giving institutional form to a collaboration between government and business. This collaboration aims to build on tested, workable practices and the deployment of appropriate retired expertise and technical skills from both the private and public sectors to strengthen vulnerable public institutions and address infrastructure provisioning and service delivery constraints.

According to Ruth Troskie, Unit Head of TAMDEV at NBI, the project funded by BAF allows TAMDEV to enhance the delivery and maintenance of water and sanitation infrastructure through offering technical support and capacity building as well as creating responsible citizens through its water conservation and stewardship programmes.

With the support and funding of BAF, TAMDEV has been able to successfully assist in identifying water leaks at numerous schools and clinics. To date a total of 42 schools have been adopted by various corporations through collaboration with the Local Business Chambers, while 24 Community Work Programme individuals have been identified and will be undergoing training and deployment within schools to assist with leak repairs. BAF has afforded TAMDEV four mentors who have been deployed in the metro to assist with communication, operation and maintenance and mitigation strategies.

“The TAMDEV programme is an incredibly important endeavour not only for BLSA but for the country. BLSA together with USAID are committed more than ever to ensuring that South Africans get access to clean water,” says Busisiwe Mavuso, BLSA CEO.

Issued by BLSA