Cape Town – At midnight on Wednesday, 31 January 2018, the extended comment window for the Water Amendment By-law was closed, with approximately 38 000 comments received from the public. The submissions will now be reviewed for constructive inputs, which will be considered for adjustments to the proposed By-law amendments. This process is expected to last approximately two months. The public will be kept informed of developments in this regard. The amended City of Cape Town Water By-law went for a first public comment period in 2016. However, due to Cape Town experiencing the worst drought in recorded history, and the City’s emphasis on proactive governance to better address water scarcity, it required further refinement. This updated version was drafted last year (2017) and advertised for public comment in early December. The amended By-law was open for public comment for more than a month which is beyond the statutory comment period requirements. The City thanked those members of the public who have familiarized themselves with the proposed amendments and engaged constructively with the content from an informed position. Given that there has been a fair amount of misinformation being shared among residents on various social media platforms, the City would like to remind the public that the proposed amendments are necessary to reflect and support the needs of the New Normal in which we find ourselves. These changes have not been proposed as a means to control or restrict what residents are doing to save water, but rather to put measures in place that support these interventions in a manner that protects public health, ensuring we are a more water efficient society going forward and that our built environment supports our broader efforts to live more sustainably. The points below provide clarity on some of the popular misinterpretations of the content of the Water By-law: ‘The By-law will force you to have plans for your Jojo tanks’ Where households have Jojo or any other kind of rainwater tank installed and are only using…

By Kazeem Ugbodaga The Lagos State Government has moved to curb food and water contamination in eateries, restaurants and hotels across the state, charging stakeholders to embrace the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point, HACCP, certification. HACCP is a management system that gives a systematic preventive approach to Food Safety, from biological, chemical, and physical hazards from raw material production, procurement and handling, to manufacturing, distribution and consumption of the finished product, through identifying where hazards may occur and design measures to reduce this risks to a safe level by putting in place stringent actions, strictly monitoring and controlling each process. Speaking at the sensitization meeting for food/water/beverage handling establishments on Thursday in Alausa, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, Special Adviser to the Governor on Primary Healthcare, Dr. Olufemi Onanuga lamented that food safety had become a major concern to the food industry given that the consumption of contaminated food and water contributed to a myriad of health problems in the World. “In 2005, 1.8 million people died of gastroenteritis caused by contaminated food and water (WHO, 2007). In spite of the technological progress in food production and control, the occurrence of these diseases has recently increased, even in developed countries. “Food and water prepared, served at the restaurants, eateries, hotels and those processed in factories may look clean and taste delicious, but may have been contaminated by biological, chemical or physical hazards during…