Issued by: Department of Water Affairs and Forestry 6 JUNE 1996
A conference on Children, Water and Development, to be hosted by Minister Kader Asmal in conjunction with UNICEF, has been scheduled to take place from 14 to 16 June 1996 in Midrand.
This conference will aim at raising awareness on Children, Water and Development and agree on ways to strengthen and maintain intersectoral co-ordination in the best interests of children and the environment. The conference will also provide a forum for children to contribute and to participate in these goals.
Lack of clean water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene practices are among the underlying causes of child deaths and illness from disease and malnutrition. At the beginning of the 1990's, 1,3 billion people in rural areas, cities and semi-urban slums of developing countries lacked access to safe water and 1,9 billion had no access to appropriate sanitation.
The satisfaction of the Convention on the rights of the child (CRC), and the adoption of the World Summit Goals (WSG) for Children by the Government of National Unity (and more specifically the RDP) have been vital and necessary towards South Africa fulfilling its commitment to children. Furthermore, the newly adopted constitution of South Africa guarantees the right to nutrition thus implying that attention be paid to the provision and availability of clean water.
The challenge now lies in the operational level. From national departments straight through to communities, and with the alliance of media and educators, there is a role to be played towards guaranteeing the rights of children as they relate to the water environment. Working together and sharing information about what is being done where and how each individual input facilitates the overall process.
The survival, development and growth of children is threatened on many fronts. Not least of these is the water environment, drought, and environmental pollution. The Convention on the rights of the Child states it is a right of all children to have access to safe drinking water, and access to education and information on the advantages of hygiene and environmental sanitation.
While the Government has the obligation to provide for safer environments, there is also a role which individuals can take in order to ensure that the environment to which their children are exposed is safer. Sharing of such information has both immediate effects on children's growth and healthy development as well as longer-term ones of protecting, nurturing and caring for the environment.
The current basic service implementation programmes of the RDP and the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) aims to provide safe water supplies and sanitation to an estimated 12 to 21 million people respectively within seven to ten years. This programme is well underway, with projects already commissioned to serve approximately 5 million people. All of these implementation projects are planned to be undertaken with community participation and consultation, and build in elements of local capacity building.
Minister Asmal has stated that only with the full support and co-operation of the communities to be served will these developments be sustainable and lasting. It is in this spirit that the conference is being convened, to help maintain the all important links between providers and beneficiaries.
The conference will exploit these synergies among all sectors that support child survival, protection and development.
For more information contact Pienkie Vilikazi at (012) 299 2523.