Honoured guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good day, goeiedag, molweni.
I am pleased to launch the City’s Water Saving Campaign today.
We are working towards building an Opportunity City.
We want to build the African city of the future, today.
But to reach that point, we must know what resources we will need.
We cannot just assume that we will always have the things we have today in the future.
We have to manage our resources today to ensure that we can still enjoy them tomorrow.
South Africa is a dry country and water is scarce.
Rain flow patterns do not always provide enough water for all of the people of this region.
Sometimes, people do not see the full extent of the problem.
City-dwellers do not realise that our water management system caters for regional areas where there is an uneven distribution of water.
But people usually only know what they can immediately see.
They can see the water flowing from their taps.
When they have needed water, it has always been there.
There is little interrogation of how that water is provided and how much of it there is.
That water is managed from dams.
It is treated.

It is distributed through a complicated network.
And there is not an endless supply of it.
Just as one individual uses water, so too does everyone in this city.
But we must think beyond ourselves.
We must look beyond the water we can see coming from our taps and think of the whole of society.
If we waste water, someone will go without.
And if we waste too much water, our city will go without in the future.
But we can take measures to ensure the future of our water supply.
We can take measures to live sustainably.
I appeal to everyone in this city to monitor their water usage; to save water; and to prevent waste.
We in the City will be doing all we can to conserve water.
From the senior members of the City management right down throughout the staff structure, we will be creating awareness and incentives to save water.
As the custodians of this city, the government of Cape Town will champion this project in everything we do.
But we need the cooperation of the whole of society to succeed.
Businesses, industries and the corporate world must also play their part.
We ask all sectors of the economy to join us in this pledge and save water.
In so doing, they will help not only this city but their own future growth because you cannot run a business without water.
You cannot do anything.
That is why this pledge extends most importantly to the individual citizen.

If people change the way they use water every day, we will be well on our way in planning for the future.
But we need everyone to take part and to invest themselves fully.
We cannot expect things to just happen without action.
If we all want water in the future, then we all have to work to save it now.
I am honoured to sign this pledge to save water today and I ask you to join me.