As the proposed Water Bill 2014 weaves its way from the National Assembly to the Senate, the fundamental question we ought to ask ourselves is: how can we get mobile telephony, digital cable and Internet in our homes, but not clean water?
In part, the answer to this question lies in the content of our water laws. Water laws provide the framework upon which the decisions of how water in the country is distributed, protected and controlled. They encompass everything from the protection against pollution, to the damming of a river to the supply of drinking water in homes.