Respect, treasure and preserve our water resources, our living and natural heritage

The month of September has been declared Heritage Month, with the 24th designated as Heritage Day, to remind people of their cultures and encourage them to preserve their heritage. Heritage is basically about remembering the past and shaping the future.

This year, Heritage Month is celebrated under the theme “Reimagine our heritage institutions for a new era”, emphasising the importance of leveraging heritage as a foundation for building a dynamic, socially responsive, technologically innovative and economically inclusive future. This year’s celebration focuses on how society, in particular, culture continues to evolve in the light of social, economic, and technological challenges.

One of the major institutions of our heritage is water resources. Water resources play a major role in our different cultures and traditions. Our water resources are basically our living heritage as they enable us to sustain our cultural and religious activities and rituals. For the sustainability of our cultural, religious and traditional rituals, it is important to reimagine our water resources as our heritage institutions and treat them with the care and respect they deserve.

As our water resources are our living heritage, it is important to protect them and keep them clean and healthy at all times to ensure that they always flow with healthy water so as to enable us to continue performing our rituals and preserve our cultural heritage. Without our water resources, we are doomed, and our cultures will disappear.

Water resources are part and parcel of our heritage. The pollution of our water resources leaves people without places to perform their cultural and religious rituals. As we celebrate Heritage Month, let us remember that water resources are part of our heritage and must be treated with respect and protected for their sustainability and to provide us with venues for our cultural and traditional activities.

Water is life and the enabler of our cultural activities. As much as we respect and treasure our cultures, let us also respect, treasure, and preserve our living natural heritage, which is our water resources. 

Themba Khoza

Department of Water and Sanitation South Africa