Sanitation brings clean drinking water to people. Human lives should not be at risk because of drinking or using water. Water should minister life – not death… Through economic development, water plays a major role. Through initiatives to try alleviating poverty, bringing or making water accessible to everybody, jobs are created. Where water projects are embarked upon, many local people are relieved from being jobless, for example, with [dam] projects…

…Through these projects and many more, there has been regional cooperation in water management, peace and prosperity. Less fortunate countries financially form partnerships … to provide water ...

Since relationships are formed between cooperating countries, peace prevails between the countries; people travel peacefully to and from each country. This ensures that the tourism industry booms. Artists make money from selling their works, which impacts positively on the economy. As a relationship is formed, countries tend to be friendly towards each other and there is no fighting. This promotes development and prosperity. …

Through technology, domestic water supply is possible. These days it is easier and quicker to use water as it can be supplied to communities and even better, to households. Life has been made efficient through domestic water supply.

…Water is one of the most important components of industries. Water is used in industries to clean materials and surroundings in order to prevent germs and to produce good and healthy products.

Hydroelectric power is produced by using the energy of falling water. … Therefore, without water there would be limited electricity…

We need to be able to know how to conserve water because if we do not, the consequences of not conserving water are harsh and permanent. If actions are not taken to conserve water, it could become scarce. If not conserved, water will not be able to meet the demand of a fast growing population. Future generations will not have the resources they need…

SADC should educate people about water resource management. Through knowledge, [the organisation] will be able to affect people’s behaviour and attitude towards saving water and water management. SADC should make water management a personal quest for each and everybody; each individual must be concerned about water. People need to be taught how saving water affects them, their children, and their community directly.

To say a dripping tap wastes two big buckets of water a day, a broken toilet wastes up to thirty buckets a day, is no lie… SADC can also implement mass awareness and education campaigns of water resource management by producing free local newspapers, leaflets, posters and outreach programmes through radio stations and television. SADC should conduct workshops to educate the people about water conservation through churches, clinics, schools, crèches, women’s focus groups, and environmental groups. SADC can also conduct doorto- door campaigns to try to implement water resource management.

Communities should be taught how to fix cisterns, taps and toilets. SADC can sponsor classes for “community plumbers” to encourage repair of leaks and help the poor. … The people should only buy the repair parts. The repair should be free; SADC should pay the “community plumbers”. Jobs are created, which helps develop our people and gives them good exposure. The news of the successful programme will run like wild fire.

SADC must be able to market itself to the Africans so that awareness is created among the people that there is an organisation, which cares about their future. The result will be that water will be used wisely; water will wash away poverty by offering employment. SADC’s vision of “a better life for all” will become a reality.

Most people think it is difficult to control floods and drought but actually, it is possible. If grass and trees are planted on the slope-land, that would help the soil absorb and retain rainwater.

… Reservoirs should be built so that they can also take excess rainwater. They serve as storage areas that can provide water in periods of drought and keep rivers from filling up excessively…

People can also manage droughts if they stop polluting the earth. The ozone layer would not be the number one cause of dangerous heat, which causes droughts. We lose people, animals and nature to drought. …

SADC should abolish the cutting down of trees, since trees absorb some of the heat. Water restrictions should also be imposed so that reservoirs are not drained quickly.

On the other hand, people must know why SADC is doing this – it has people’s best interest at heart. SADC should continue with its great work for its people. .

Samukelisiwe Dlamini’s essay won the SADC Regional Secondary Schools Essay Competition and was read out at the Summit in Mauritius. The writer is a student at Valencia Combined School, Mpumalanga, South Africa. The first runner up was Robert Lusinje of St. Patricks S e c o n d a ry School, Limbe, Malawi, while Priyamvadha Doorgakant of Queen Elizabeth College, Mauritius, came third.