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Wate
r 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.
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