Briefing by the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry - Professor Kader Asmal
16 February 1999
Thank you for this most welcome opportunity. I enjoy meeting the media, even if I enjoy the odd scuffle of a unilateral nature with them. My comments today will centre around progress achieved by my portfolio during our first 5 years of our democratically elected government. The praise singer will only appear at my Budget Debate on 10 March.
When the government came to power, we promised to deliver services that would improve the quality of life of millions of our people. At the time we committed ourselves to meeting certain targets based on the needs that were created by years of oppression, of denial of full citizenship, of racial discrimination, of legalised violence against the poorest of our society. We also committed ourselves to creating a totally new, transformed department.
Five years later, we ask "how did we do"? I can proudly say, the Government under President Nelson Mandela has delivered, and delivered decisively. The water and forestry portfolio has been part of this, unleashing blue and green revolutions on the land. No one can deny this.
Nearly five years ago when I walked into the Department's building in Pretoria, nobody greeted me in the lift. Men in grey shoes and suits frowned and looked completely perplexed at over the fact that a Black had pressed the lift button to the 10th' floor, the holy of holies of Water Affairs and Forestry. Only the black cleaners and handymen bothered to greet me as I got out of the lift. They did not greet me because they knew I was a new Minister. They did so because people who ventured on the 10th floor were held in high esteem. The 10th floor was a bastion of the old order, all white, all male except for the secretaries and cleaners.
Nearly five years down the line we have changed all that. We have begun to change the attitudes, perceptions, even the style of delivery. We now have black Deputy Directors General and we have black Chief Directors and we have woman claiming their own in top posts. It's no secret that many black people did not even know about the existence of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry. The Department only existed for white farmers to finance their irrigation schemes and to churn millions of rands in times of droughts.
In the past the Department was frequently used as a last post for discredited and dysfunctional Ministers whose performance was suspect or non-existent. The Department is now one of the central departments of the State. We have transformed the Department into a delivery department. We spent about two years putting the right policies in place. We identified areas which needed urgent attention because of the acute shortage of water. We discovered l4 000 villages with between 12 to 15 million rural people who did not have access to clean water, that is a third of South Africa, and one half of our country had no hygienic sanitation.
Prior to 1994, the Department was heavily focused on engineering and large dam building, which was its way of meeting water needs, mainly of the privileged. Its walls were liberally covered with pictures of dams and irrigation. Vast number; of South Africans were locked out of water delivery, and these dispossessed communities were often situated close to brimming dams serving white farmers.
I can proudly say today we are unbundling this tragic situation. Such approaches and this vision no longer appears in this Department. This insensitivity about the disfranchised, no longer exists. It was necessary to bring in people who had been previously excluded, at all levels - for instance, blacks and women did not exist, at top management level, and hardly existed at lower management levels.
We have totally recast the policy and legislative frameworks for the water and forestry sector as well as focused our attention on delivery. We have removed the policies and legal instruments that were used to deny these services to our people.
Previous policies encouraged wasteful use of water through many types of hidden subsidies that benefited only a minority of South Africans. The National Water Act, 1998 does away with this outdated approach based on the water-rich countries of Europe.. Water was the presumed right of privileged, landed people and was deemed to be allocated in perpetuity. The new water policies will ensure that users of water will pay in accordance with the amount of water used. At the same time, the New National Water Act makes provision for assistance to the poor who cannot afford to pay for bulk water to start a business. The law specifically mentions those who were previously disadvantaged on the basis of race and gender.
This legislation provides a new impetus to the more effective and equitable use of our scarce water, which would otherwise run out. In an innovation which has attracted world attention, the Act guarantees a minimum reserve for basic human needs and the environment.
We have also taken a new approach to water demand management. We have concentrated on water conservation and use, and proper demand management, aspects which were neglected in the past. Not only have we established a new Chief Directorate, but we are radically changing mind-sets among the public at large about the vital need to save water. Our National Water Conservation Campaign here has been heralded as "unprecedented in terms of its approach and effectiveness, anywhere in the world", by US Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt. Through the several steps outlined in the campaign we can reduce water consumption by up to 30% - saving money on capital projects, and pushing well back the date at which South Africa will face a water emergency. The conservation campaign provides the energy and equipment to move us all down a sustainable road.
In line with this approach, I would like to state the following about the water supply augmentation options for the Cape Metropolitan Council supply area. I note the progress made with development of a water demand management policy, strategy and programme. However, despite this progress achieved, the finalisation of the augmentation decisions is dependent on the provision of further and more detailed information on the water demand management programme, including:
These issues have to be ironed out before agreement can be reached on further augmentation options such as the Skuifraam Dam for the metropolitan area.
A review of water resource management is never complete without reference to the Working of Water Programme otherwise known as the removal of invading alien plants, considered to be one of the foremost water resource management programmes in the world. This programme continues to be a model programme illustrating the Governments macro-economic strategy for Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GIRAR), as well as its Reconstruction and Development Programme. It has no fewer than six main benefits: it enhances water security, frees land for productive use, conserves biological diversity, and the ecological functioning of natural systems, promotes secondary industries using the alien wood, diminishes natural disasters such as fires and floods, and builds communities through its labour-intensive approaches. in the past financial year the programme has been able to employ over 42 000 people, with strong emphasis on the most marginalized, namely: rural communities, blacks, women, youth, the disadvantaged, single parents and the poor of the poor.
The National Water Act has already had a major impact. It has created the opportunity for government to remove the stigma of water use rights being monopolised by a few to ensure water is used to create opportunities for especially the previously disadvantaged. I am happy to announce that additional water is now available for job creation. All in all, this allocation of additional water is expected to create at least 10 000 new job in some of the most depressed areas of South Africa.
Preliminary findings indicate that, in the Northern Cape, up to 4000 ha of new irrigation could be developed among the lower Orange River. These could be located near existing communities at various places along the river and are aimed at creating opportunities for emerging farmers. If high income crops suited to the area are produced, these developments could create at least 3 000 direct job opportunities for farm workers as well as self-employed farmers. In the Eastern Cape, I can announce that water for up to 5000 hectares is now available for new irrigation which would create approximately 3000 jobs.
Several other examples come to mind.
The Greater Ceres Dam has been a joint undertaking by National Government, Local Government and the private sector to provide a multi purpose water scheme which will supply sufficient water for local inhabitants for the next 30-40 years. The Ceres Municipality is responsible for the supply of water to a population of some 30 000 people, approximately 70% of whom are classed as disadvantaged persons. An agricultural component of water for irrigation of 800 hectares will also be supplied to commercial farmers within the Koekedouw Water User Association boundaries, who will use the water to produce fruit to be sold on the local as well as international markets. About 15% of the water allocated for irrigation will be used to create an irrigation scheme for emerging farmers. This allocation represents an agricultural component of 138 hectares of irrigation development. Some of the emerging farmers are entering contractual agreements with commercial farmers where joint ownership is formed. In this way capacity is built within the group of emerging farmers. It is estimated that the project will provide 1000 permanent jobs and 450 seasonal jobs, making the augmentation of the additional water supply a critical component of the socio-economic development and economic viability of the Ceres-area.
Another example as to the provision of water for irrigators creating a benefit for the whole community is the Paris Dam near Vryheid. A water supply pipeline will be laid to a school, clinic and about 500 households of the Mthethwa community who will be affected by the dam. The estimated cost of the water works is R1,2 million and that of the main and distribution pipelines, break pressure tanks and reservoirs R2,8 million. These costs are included in the budget for the construction of the dam and will therefore be paid for by the Board. The water will be supplied at about 50c per kilolitre, which should cover the operation, and maintenance cost.
Either a bridge across the top end of the dam basin and connecting rural roads to the provincial road system to Vryheid or a road to Opuzane via the Helpmekaar homestead, will be built. Either option will allow the Mthethwa to use their farms on the south side of the river and improve their physical access to job opportunities in the \/ryheid area, which has been a problem in the past The estimated cost is R3 million and is also included in the budget for the dam. The design of the dam would also result in sufficient water for small growers and has the potential to generate an income of R9 million per annum for participants. The labour force in the agricultural sector should be stabilised by the dam. The improved cane production due to the dam should secure the jobs of about 6 000 people presently employed as well as result in approximately 1 200 new job opportunities.
Water will now be managed as such that it supports the broader objectives of economic and social development.
In 1994 we discovered that between 12-15 million South Africans did not have proper access to fresh, safe water, and about 21 million without hygienic sanitation. Of critical importance, therefore it was necessary to establish effective community water and sanitation projects throughout the country. This programme, has been one of our flagships with regard to delivery, focusing directly on the rural, vulnerable poor.
Most of South Africa's poor live in the rural areas; 45% of the population is rural, but the rural areas contain 72% of these members of the total population who are poor. The poverty rate for rural areas is 71%. The lack of access to basic services such as potable water is closely correlated with poverty. The absence of potable water and sanitation makes rural people vulnerable to poor health, which reduces their quality of live and productive capacity. In rural areas, more than 80% of poor households have no access to potable water or sanitation, hence the rural focus of the programme which has provided basic water supplies to 3 million people since April 1994.
In 1994, this programme was initiated with funding from the RDP Fund of R282 million for 12 Presidential Lead Projects. With the closure of the RDP office, funding for this programme was transferred to the exchequer budget.
Between 1994-1998, 1025 projects have been started. The estimated budget costs are R4,264 billion. When these projects are completed 4,94 million people will have been served. To date projects serving 3,1 million people have been completed. R2,664 billion was spent in order to create 58 050 person year jobs. Due to the fact that we had to create a new branch in the Department from 1994 onwards to handle this task, it took the Department 3 years to provide 1 million people with safe, clean water; service delivery accelerated to such an extent that the 3 millionth recipient was reached in little over half the time.
Other achievements are:
I am also pleased to report that over the last year the World Commission on Dams, of which I am the Chairperson, has established its international secretariat in Cape Town. This is a sign of South Africa's growing stature and importance in the world water sector.
The Commission, which will report next year, will make a significant contribution to the debate and the resolution of related disputes, around large dams and their alternatives, in the context of real sustainable development.
On the international front, the new water law forces us to prioritise the needs of our neighbouring countries for use of water resources. Therefore, within the context of regional co-operation and spirit of coexistence, South Africa will use access to water as a prevention of conflict and as a catalyst for peace. There is nowhere on the world where, apart from international instruments, one country actually legally protects the water needs of neighbouring countries. This forms the basis for regional co-operation, particularly when the region faces challenges of water scarcity in the future. This is a clear illustration of governments commitment to SADC development.
In Forestry, we inherited a very difficult situation, particularly in the former "homelands". But we are tackling the challenges presented to us and are beginning to make immense strides. We inherited a forestry business that was not just bankrupt but losing R300 million a year. We have taken a decision that the private sector is now in a position to carry out this function without direct assistance from government. In the past year, an enormous amount of work has gone into preparing both SAFCOL and the Department forests for sale. We are almost at an end to this process and a specific announcement in this regard will be made shortly. This restructuring is probably the most significant move in the forestry sector in decades. Forestry in South Africa has never been seen as a particularly exciting or critical part of government's programme. Over the past five years, we have begun to change that. Forestry touches the lives of millions of people and my Department has begin playing a critical role in the development of this sector.
We have completely overhauled the forestry legislation by presenting the National Forests Act and the National Veld and Forest Fire Act. The National Forests Act introduces an entirely new approach to the management of both indigenous and commercial forests. It emphasises community involvement in forest management, as well as environmental sustainability. It is strongly in line with international requirements and has drawn praise from international sources.
The Veld and Forest Fire Act is a remarkable piece of legislation. It regulates not only forests fires, but all fires In rural areas. It relies on information, early warning systems and local co-operation. Both these Acts are now being implemented.
The area that gives me the most pleasure in relation to forestry, is the shift towards community-based approach. in the past the forests - both indigenous and commercial - have been islands of privilege and exclusion in a sea of rural misery. That is beginning to change as a result of three main activities. Firstly, we have made access to state forest mandatory under the National Forests Act. This means that all state forests even those leased to the private sector will be accessible to communities for recreational and spiritual purposes. No-one will be kept out.
Secondly, we have expanded the Community Forestry function of my Department so that we spend more time and money assisting communities with various services, including rural energy needs.
Thirdly, we are now taking a more participatory approach to the management of South Africa's indigenous forests. Around the country, we are now working directly with communities to determine the ways on which these precious resources should be managed. I invite members of the press to visit some of these projects with my Department,
As many of you know, we have achieved a major breakthrough in getting agreement from the community at Dukuduku in the St Lucia area of KwaZulu Natal to move to alternative land being provided by the State. We are still working very energetically on this issue and I am determined to address both the needs of the community and environment. Central to the success achieved so far with the issue is Dr. Jabulani Mjwara whom I credit for the breakthrough. Dr. Mjwara represents the new way in which the Department goes about executing its business, a way which is people-centered which recognises and which brings the need of the environment to the fore.