Chairperson, indeed, a lot has been said. This is a department that is parting ways: Water on the one hand, and Forestry on the other. Yesterday, at a dinner, the Minister of Minerals and Energy talked about Siamese twins that were being separated, a surgery that must be done. The question is whether the surgery is indeed going to be successful.
We trust that this time, especially with the Departments of Water Affairs and Environmental Affairs having been combined, we are going to have a lot of air that will bring energy and oxygen to that water. Those Siamese twins are certainly not going to be the ones we are seeing here in Parliament - the DA and Cope - which continue, endlessly, to make all kinds of statements about the ANC's progress. We'll watch them. They are starting, and they are certainly going to end at some point, if not disappear. [Laughter.] [Applause.]
A lot has been said about water ... [Interjections.] That has to do with disappearance. Clearly, it is scarce. It becomes a clarion call for all of us: that we educate all and that we be educated by all to save and preserve water. A lot has been said. I don't need to overemphasise the issue. We have a resource to protect for future generations. The summary that is being made about the preciousness of water is: "Water is life."
A friend of mine based in Johannesburg is involved in a catering business, on the one hand, and a waste management business, on the other. The same goes for water. When you are eating you must use water; and when you are talking about waste, you must use water. So, in a nutshell, water is indeed life.
The quality of water must be about drinking it and bathing in it so that we do not have children, as we have had in Motherwell, developing skin rashes owing to the quality of water there. If you are sick, you are told to drink a glass of water.