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In response to a number of news articles on water scarcity as well as service delivery challenges today, Amnesty International South Africa would like to draw attention to its video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5To5I0025Bc) calling on Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Lindiwe Sisulu to take action on the Right To Water For All without delay.

Reacting to the Minister saying the water situation in South Africa is serious, but not to panic, the video features sections of a poem written by Antjie Krog for the 1997 White Paper on a National Water Policy for South Africa:

We want the water 

Of this country to flow out into the network 

Reaching every individual 

Saying here is this water for you 

Take it, cherish it as affirming your human dignity 

Nourish your humanity 

Water gathered and stored since the beginning of time in layers of granite and rock 

In the embrace of dams 

The ribbons of rivers will one day 

Unheralded

Modestly

Easily

Simply flow out to every South African who turns a tap 

That is my dream.

Voiced by presenter, blogger and voice artist Chelsea-Summer Lodewyk, the video acts as a reminder to Minister Sisulu of the promise made at the dawn of South Africa’s freedom and the dream of safe, sufficient and reliable water for all.

And that it’s time to panic.

BACKGROUND

The video can be viewed here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5To5I0025Bc). 

Amnesty International South Africa’s campaign, Right To Water: Turn On The Tap, calls for the government to recognise that many people in South Africa are denied their constitutional right to water, and to publicly commit to providing equal access to water for everyone – now and always.

Take action here and tell the government to #TurnOnTheTap.

Issued by Amnesty International