Zingela Ulwazi is proud to be a signatory to the Position Statement for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the Olifants River Catchment. With over 70 organisations signing this declaration, we intend to bring attention to this part of South Africa, this river system which has been devastated by agricultural, industrial, municipal and domestic pollution.
CSOs are often the groups that have to deal with disasters as they happen and our rural areas have been deeply neglected and abused by government and business. As a result, we have water crises all over the catchment with many communities absolutely dry, forced to buy dirty river water from trucks who sell it for exorbitant prices.
We at Zingela Ulwazi are shaping our work in the area to assist communities with food security, livelihoods and climate change adaptation – we will be launching our green enterprise leadership program FPELA later this year, and also a training series in permaculture. We hope to extend our work with civil society around the country, focussing on water justice.
Our director, Stella Horgan, worked with AWARD (Association for Water and Rural Development) over the last 3 years building the network of Civil Society Organisations in the Olifants Catchment and facilitated 18 CSO Indabas in the Upper, Middle and Lower Catchments which over 150 CSOs attended. You can read more about this work here.
Please click on the link following to read the Position Statement; we hope it inspires you. If you would like to join as a signatory please contact Stella.
Olifants CSO position statement with ZU logo
