SA: National Water Strike Imminent

Johannesburg – The SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) has suspended a national strike in the water sector until Wednesday, a union official said on Monday.

“Samwu has decided to suspend protest action until Wednesday pending further consultation,” said Samwu national spokesperson Tahir Sema.

The strike against the employer body, the SA Association of Water Utilities (Saawu), was to have started on Monday.

Sema said Samwu would hold a national executive council meeting on Wednesday in Johannesburg.

Depending on the outcome of the meeting, the union could afterwards give the final go-ahead for a strike involving about 50 000 workers, including administrators, mechanics and technicians.

Source: News24

South Africa, with it’s water scarcity and water security issues, can ill-afford to allow other factors to further worsen our water crisis.  Essential services do not escape from industrial action in South Africa, that includes your daily water supply that you expect to come out of your taps!  Not only will the strike further exacerbate water supply issues but the dereliction of duty at water purification plants is almost certainly going to result in water that is of suspect quality.  Water strikes will probably become a more common occurrence; South Africans need to be prepared.  The simplest way to ensure short-term water supply is to install a water tank that can store municipal water for times of water interruptions. A better, long-term solution is to install a rainwater harvesting system with one or more rainwater tanks.  Water Rhapsody’s Grand Opus rainwater system is unique in that the water tanks can be placed away from the house, out of sight (unlike traditional ‘rainbarrels’ that are placed under the eaves) .  Our rainwater system also integrates seamlessly with your existing water supply so you can switch from one supply to the other at the turn of  a lever.  Contact us for a free quote on how to harvest FREE rainwater!  We are also the authorized JoJo Water Tank dealers for Limpopo and Mpumalanga Provinces (we supply water tank stands too).