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Date
: 25/08/2005
Source: Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
Title: Sonjica: African Ministers coming together to achieve
Millennium Development Goals
Speech by Ms B P Sonjica, MP, Minister of Water
Affairs and Forestry at the AMIWASH: African Ministers coming
together to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, Stockholm,
Sweden
THE FUTURE OF AFRICA - SOUTH AFRICA LEADING THE WAY
Honourable Ministers of Water,
Distinguished guests,
Dear friends in water and sanitation from all over the world
It is an honour and privilege for me as an African Minister of
Water to share with you experiences, efforts and actions taken by
South Africa as a member of the African continent to address
challenges for achieving the Millennium Development Goals on water
and sanitation. You will indeed agree with me that water and
sanitation services are the core of healthy life and economic
development.
Those of you who were at the Global Wash Forum in Dakar, Senegal,
in November 2004, will recall that the forum focussed on harnessing
various countries’ energy towards achievement of the
Millennium Development Goals on water and sanitation as agreed
during the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg,
South Africa, in 2002. You will also recall that the Dakar
Statement of Actions and Commitment endorsed, among others, gender
sensitive, people-centred approaches as non-negotiable for
achievement of WASH Millennium Development Goals in a sustainable
manner. The road from Dakar towards achieving the Millennium
Development Goals was also accepted as a meaningful and practical
tool to assess whether countries are on track and moving in the
right direction.
In my keynote address at the Global Wash Forum, I highlighted South
Africa’s commitment to the eradication of water and
sanitation backlogs, as well as challenges we face in implementing
the plans in a manner that ensures sustainability and begin to
attack the poverty situation in our country, and I will again share
our efforts with you today.
As a starting point, South Africa sets its targets for eradication
of backlogs and provision of access to basic services for both
water and sanitation in the years 2008 is the year we envisage we
will have supplied all South Africans with clean water. 2010 is the
year we envisage we shall have supplied all South Africans with
sanitation services. In addition, these targets have been broken
down to the following categories, which are closely monitored by
all sector stakeholders and ultimately by Cabinet: Access to
services, education and health, free basic services and
institutional development and performance. These targets are
stipulated in the Strategic Framework for Water Services document,
which is a product of collaboration of all water services sector
stakeholders with the South African Department of Water Affairs and
Forestry as a leader.
Access to water and sanitation is a human rights issue that is
provided for in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.
To this end, the South African Government provides grant funding
for development of infrastructure to ensure provision of basic
services through what we call the Municipal Infrastructure Grant.
The Water and Sanitation Programme is biased towards the poor and
most vulnerable people who have in the past been left to fend for
themselves with minimal or no support from government. These are
the people that you find in the rural and fringe areas, which, as a
legacy of apartheid were not catered for.
This programme further demonstrates the co-operation and
collaboration of different government departments and spheres of
government in line with the notion of South Africa being one
government. The South African Department of Water Affairs and
Forestry provides policy guidelines and support to municipalities
who are responsible for implementation. In doing this, the
municipalities are the waters authorities and have the power to
engage the services of both the private and public sector,
including civil society organisations and structures. The National
Treasury provides the required budget.
Government departments are providing hands-on support to local
government and municipalities through the South African
Government’s programme known as “Project
Consolidate”. This programme aims at enhancing local
government’s functionality as the deliverer of services. I
want to put an emphasis on capacity. We have just transferred this
function to municipalities. In 87 of our municipalities we still do
not have even a single engineer, which is an example of the lack of
capacity that we still experience in South Africa.
A people-centred and holistic approach to the provision of services
ensures that needs and concerns of affected and impacted people are
addressed. To this end, ward committees at local government level
and community development workers play a major role of interfacing
with the broader community. Infrastructure development is done in
such a manner that capacity building and training become an
integral part of projects and programmes. Apart from the
development of hard technical skills at community and project
levels, both water and sanitation programmes have a health and
hygiene education component. The aim is to minimise or eradicate
water related diseases and illnesses, an intervention that will
result in healthier communities and citizens. Health and hygiene
education is taken so seriously that specific learnerships have
been developed and registered to ensure that accredited training is
provided around this issue. The provision of hard technical skills
training and contract management is provided through the Extended
Public Works Programme. At the end of the infrastructure
development, hard skills are left in the community and can be
harnessed for other local economic benefits.
Political will has been created in all levels of government.
Regular interministerial and interdepartmental consultations,
dialogue and planning are held to ensure co-ordinated approaches.
As I indicated earlier on, the Strategic Framework for Water
Services (policy guiding the water services sector mandate) has
been developed jointly with all spheres of government and other
stakeholders in the civil society, public and private sector.
Currently the South African Department of Water Affairs and
Forestry is working on strategies to guide the evolving regulatory
function, as well as firming its support role to the sector. At the
regional level participation and support to the African initiatives
within the continent, as well as the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) sub-region is a further indication of political
will towards achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
You will agree with me that sustainable service delivery starts
with sound planning frameworks and guidelines. Our water services
legislation makes planning of services a requirement to the extent
that only projects that are reflected in local authorities’
Integrated Development Plans receive government funds. As far as
water services are concerned, the Water Services Development Plan
is a component of the Integrated Development Plans of
municipalities. These plans are reviewed on an annual basis to
coincide with the government’s budgeting processes.
Systems to monitor progress do exist and are updated regularly as
need arise. Monitoring and evaluation is one area we still need to
work on with local government. All efforts are made to synchronise
and align the monitoring systems so as not to create additional
burdens to municipalities and other spheres of government.
Alignment will also enhance credibility of data and information
collated and thus enhances the analytical role of government. In
addition to this sector, reporting forums have been established to
review progress at quarterly intervals. At a strategic level the
Water Services Leadership Group meets twice a year to review
strategies applied and give overall policy direction and guidance
to the implementers. Furthermore, reports are provided to the South
African Parliament’s Portfolio Committee overseeing water
matters, and ultimately to government.
Earlier on I mentioned the people-centred approach to development
as a building block to sustainability of services. We should also
not forget that discriminatory practices based on gender have been
a part of our historical and cultural lives since time immemorial.
The legacy of this is evident in the gender imbalances prevalent in
the sector. It is on the basis of this and other factors that as a
country we have been putting focus on mainstreaming gender in all
sector functions and programmes. Addressing gender imbalances has
an additional benefit of addressing the poverty situation. Due to
the discrimination and marginalisation of specifically female
citizens (who in most cases constitute the majority of citizens)
has created huge poverty challenges in Africa.
It is for this reason that the South African Government located the
Office on the Status of Women in The Presidency and provincially in
the Premiers’ offices to ensure that government departments
addresses and promotes gender-mainstreaming activities. The South
African Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, as a sector
leader also has a gender mainstreaming programme, which addresses
both the organisational/institutional environment, as well as the
external in terms of sector projects, and programmes.
About two weeks ago, on 12 August 2005 to be precise, I had the
honour of awarding a prize to one of my regional offices for the
best gender-mainstreaming programme in the department for 2005.
This is an annual award to encourage departmental managers and
staff to take gender mainstreaming seriously and afford it the
attention it deserves.
I also wish to share with you our efforts regarding women’s
empowerment initiatives in the sector. In recent years we have come
up with annual “Women in Water Awards” giving
recognition to efforts and initiatives of women’s
contribution to the water sector in the following categories:
* Research: 35 years old and above;
* Research: under 35;
* Community Development, Education and Communication; and
* Management and Policy.
Prioritising women for bursary allocations in the sector remains a
challenge, which will hopefully diminish with the current
government initiative to promote science and technology education
and training in the country.
We are implementing an education programme in schools, which
educates the society about water and sanitation related issues. The
education programme is integrated into the school curriculum.
Through this programme we are encouraging the young people to
participate actively in the water resource management and
sanitation in their communities, also enhancing their interest in
water resource management careers. They identify problems in their
communities, conduct research and recommend solutions. The youth
promote health and hygiene in their communities through drama,
poetry, traditional music and poster. Annually during National
Water Week held in March I present Youth in Water Awards to
learners who presented outstanding projects.
In South Africa we still have other challenges like direction of
specific funds for sanitation. We also still experience a shortage
of skills, like those of engineers, technicians and even skills in
relation to management and financial management. There is always
the problem of under-spending, which is more due to a lack of
financial management skills rather than a lack of funds.
Minimising environmental degradation as a result of infrastructure
development is one of the key pillars of sustainable service
delivery. To this end, the South African Department of
Environmental Affairs and Tourism plays a leading role in
development of policies, which are then translated into strategies
and guidelines by the South African Department of Water Affairs and
Forestry for use by local authorities and other structures in the
development of water and sanitation infrastructure.
In conclusion, Programme Director, let me point out that as we are
moving forward in our efforts to provide adequate access to water
and sanitation services, we are faced with more challenges as well,
which would include urban migration, rising unemployment rates,
which then increase poverty levels, etc. However, as a government
we have also put in place measures in South Africa to address
challenges of access to basic services for our poor population
through the Free Basic Water and Sanitation programmes where the
government subsidises basic services to the poor.
We shall soon be holding local elections. In keeping with the
ideals of our Constitution, our President has said that 50% of the
names on the election lists need to be women.
There is something that I do not see. I believe that we need to
collate and co-ordinate the efforts on the continent with regards
the delivery of water and sanitation.
I am very concerned of the statistics that keep on cropping up with
regards the backlog on the continent. It seems like as a continent
we have not moved below the 2 billion people still outside of these
services. Someone needs to look into those statistics and give the
latest updates.
I would like to suggest a new acronym: WIFE: which would stand for
Women Institutions Finance Education.
Collective commitment and action is required from all of us in the
continent and the globe to meet the targets, which we have set for
ourselves. There is strength in united efforts. I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
25 August 2005
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