Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Ronnie Kasrils has announced a White Paper on Water Services to be presented before Cabinet within the next few weeks.

A White Paper is a detailed policy document for consultation by relevant stakeholders before becoming legislation.

Briefing the media at Parliament yesterday, the Minister said the White Paper was the culmination of a water services policy review of which climbing the water ladder was a key element.

“This White Paper puts forward a vision, goals and specific targets for the water services sector in South Africa for the next ten years and sets out policy to achieve these within the framework of local government policy”.

The new White Paper is set to replace the 1994 White Paper on Water Supply and Sanitation.

The 1994 paper focused mainly on the role of national government in the delivering of basic water services rapidly to unserved people, primarily in rural areas and according to the minister, the context had changed significantly. Kasrils says the new White Paper addressed the full spectrum of water supply and sanitation services and all the relevant institutions.

“Of fundamental importance, the White Paper addresses backlogs, improving levels of service and investment in water services,” said the Minister.

“Our vision is that these targets will be achieved by the water services sector collectively.

They should therefore be seen as broad targets to strive towards rather than financial commitments”.

The detailed financial requirements and commitments would be determined through the normal planning and budgetary processes of national and local government,” said Minister Kasrils.

The White Paper on Basic Household Sanitation (2001) will also be amended to ensure compatibility with the new White Paper. –BuaNews.