22 August 2002
ON THE EVE OF THE JOHANNESBURG SUMMIT - BANISHING POVERTY, CREATING A BETTER LIFE AND SECURING THE FUTURE FOR ALL SOUTH AFRICANS
On the eve of the historic World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, my Department takes particular pride in two important initiatives this year; the introduction of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, (WASH) campaign in March and the release of the National Water Resource Strategy, hailed as a blueprint for the nation's survival, for public comment.
This financial year will see a further one million South Africans in the rural areas, the poorest of the poor, receiving clean water and a record 1.4million being provided with adequate sanitation. We can take pride in the fact that our government and country is clearly developing a better life for our people and particularly in an area such as water and sanitation where provision creates a better quality of life and health.
Sanitation
"The WASH campaign was introduced during the National Water Week campaign in Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal because of the earlier outbreak of cholera in the area and certain parts of that province. Started by the Geneva-based Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC). WASH is a global health programme which highlights that the fact the simple act of washing hands after going to the toilet can cut diseases by one third and save many lives from diarrhoea and other preventable diseases."
"The South African launch of the campaign was a landmark event, not just for this country but also for other nations which are plagued by the devastating impacts of the lack of adequate sanitation - affecting 2.4billion - mostly the poor in the developing world. Mr Gourisankar Gosh, Executive Director of the WSSCC described WASH as a 'question of human dignity, especially for women and girls, who normally have to wait until dark to defecate because of the absence of these facilities in many countries."
"At the end of July my Department together with WSSCC, hosted a four day AfricaSan Conference in Johannesburg, which was attended by 150 delegates from Africa, including 12 Ministers from southern, East and West Africa selectively invited to present country case studies. Conference delegates included senior experts and activists from national and international organisations, NGOs and the private sector. Decisions taken at that conference have far reaching implications for the continent and its approach at the WSSD where we will discuss actions to reduce the world sanitation backlog. In this respect South Africa's success in constructing fifty thousand VIP, Pit Latrine's, in our last financial year at an investment of R120million is highly significant for we will be continuing our programme and at this rate will be providing all our people with adequate sanitation within 10 to 15 years. The latest figures for this financial year are most encouraging. I have at my disposal a record allocation of R274m for sanitation. This enables us to provide VIP toilets for a 175 thousand households or approximately 1.4million people given the size of rural households. Since April 01st 2002 my department has constructed 13 thousand five hundred toilets focussing on cholera prone areas.
Community Water Supply (rural)
Our water provision programme continues and as I have pointed out many times we will have provided all our people with clean water by the year 2008, far surpassing the UN Millennium target of halving the number of people without safe water by 2015. My budget this year amounts to R880 million for this programme, which will provide a clean water service for one million more of our people. So far this year we have succeeded in reaching 326 thousand of that number. At the end of this financial year the backlog will have been brought down to 6 million who as I have said will be reached by 2008 of possibly sooner."
Free Basic Water
"This year, on 1 July, with the new financial year of local government, 24 more local authorities implemented the free basic water policy. This ensured that another three million people gained access to free basic water, bringing the total to 27 million people, 76,5 percent of those who have access to water infrastructure. The outstanding 70 municipalities still to introduce free basic water have been targeted with support to ensure that they can implement this policy as soon as possible."
"The free basic water policy is part of a wider strategy to achieve poverty eradication, thereby contributing to sustainable development in South Africa. A major component of poverty eradication is ensuring that people are not denied access to a basic water supply, if they are unable to afford it."
National Water Resource Strategy
"The National Water Resource Strategy released at the beginning of August for public comment is the implementation plan for the 1997 National Water Policy. It describes how the provisions and requirements of the 1998 National Water Act will be put into practice. The Strategy will ensure that we will be able to meet the water-related needs of all our people, especially those who still labour under the crippling burden of poverty and underdevelopment."
"A Summary of the proposed National Water Resource Strategy was published in the Government Gazette (No. 23711) on 8th August 2002 and is being distributed to 3000 stakeholders, ranging from government departments and major water use sectors to individual water users. The full document is available electronically on the Department's website, and hard copies are available for inspection at departmental offices and in public places such as libraries. Supporting and explanatory documents in all official languages will also be distributed."
"The Proposed Strategy is not a rigid and static master plan. Priorities for water use will change as our society develops. It is possible that the effects of global climate change will influence the availability of water and patterns of use during the next few decades. The first edition of the Strategy will be reviewed and revised where necessary, and a second edition published within the next five years. Thereafter the Strategy will be reviewed at least every five years to ensure that it remains relevant to prevailing circumstances."
"In mid-September 2002, once the dust of WSSD has settled, the Department will commence a country-wide consultation process. There will be 29 national and regional meetings at which comments on the proposed Strategy will be invited. The Strategy will then be revised and all commentators will receive feedback on how their comments were dealt with."
Forestry
"In Forestry Restructuring, the bid process to find a commercial tenant for the Komati forest area has been put on hold pending the outcome of an internal investigation by the Department of Public Enterprises into the allegations of misconduct against its Chief Director. The outcome of the investigation will determine whether Government will continue the transaction with Zama Resources, engage the reserve bidder, Paharphur Cooling Towers or re-open the process. It should be noted however that the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry's operational involvement in this area has ended. The relevant staff have either transferred to the parastatal SAFCOL, pending finalisation of the commercial transaction, or taken severance packages."
"This continues the process whereby my Department is re-orientating itself to be a national forest authority rather than a hands-on manager of forest areas. The role of a national forest authority in this country will be the formulation of policy regarding forestry and the regulation of activities on forest land in terms of the National Forest Act, 1998 (Act 84 of 1998). We will be the referee over sustainable forest management and not be a player and manager at the same time.
This process is continuing with the indigenous forests as well. We are consulting to identify appropriate management agencies to undertake the 'manager' role. One of the entities under consideration is SANPARKS. We are also considering whether certain provincial administrations are in a position to assess whether the management of indigenous forest areas such as Dukuduku in KwaZulu/Natal can be delegated or assigned to that sphere of government in the future."
The Johannesburg Summit
"Finally, I need to mention some of the key issues that will be addressed during WSSD, particularly in relation to water which is one of the key themes of the conference. In the field of basic water supply and sanitation, we will be highlighting our achievements. South Africa, a middle income country whose average income and levels of inequality mirrors the global picture, has shown that the Millennium Declaration water supply goals are eminently achievable, given political will and leadership at national level. We will need to see the same degree of political will and leadership at a global level if we are to achieve the global water supply targets to which the Heads of State committed themselves in 2000.
"We know from our own experience with the recent cholera outbreak that unless we ensure that people have basic sanitation facilities as well as water supplies, and unless they have the basic health and hygiene knowledge, we will not achieve the health improvements needed to prevent 6000 children a day dying from water related disease. For this reason, South Africa with the rest of the developing world has insisted that a sanitation target must be set during the Summit.
WSSD will emphasise the need for co-operation between countries, which share rivers to address the threat of water scarcity. In the spirit of NEPAD, we are not talking, we are doing. We will be signing an agreement on 29th August with our neighbours Mozambique and Swaziland on the sharing and management of our two common rivers, the Komati and the Pongola (Maputo as it is known in Mozambique). The Komati in particular is very stressed, supporting power generation, irrigation, industrial, tourism and urban use in South Africa as well as extensive irrigation in Swaziland. The agreement will give financiers the certainty they need to unlock finance for a major new irrigation scheme in Swaziland and will assure water to meet the growing needs of Maputo in Mozambique. This is an example of NEPAD in action.
Issued by Ministry of Water Affairs and Forestry