B Sonjica: Water Week celebrations in Madiba Municipal Services Zone
Centre

28 March 2006

Members of the Executive Council,
Members of the provincial legislature,
Honoured kings and traditional leadership,
Executive mayors, mayors and councillors,
Ward committee members,
Honoured guests and friends,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Introduction

Thank you for the opportunity to address you today at this momentous
occasion. We are gathered here today together with the community of the Alfred
Nzo District Municipality to celebrate National Water Week 2006 under the theme
"Water for Growth and Development."

Today we will appropriately open a sanitation project to mark this occasion.
No one can contest the inexorable linkage between sustainable water and
sanitation service delivery. So it is with enthusiasm that I look forward to
this delivery milestone.

Sanitation service delivery and the provision of health and hygiene
education not only provide dignity but realise the constitutional rights of
South Africans to have access to this service and social equity. Sanitation
delivery in affording improved health and the prevention of water borne disease
significantly contributes towards and allows for the productive participation
of people in the economy alleviating poverty. Sanitation too contributes to
growth and development incrementally.

This theme was one of the themes of the fourth World Water Forum (WWF), a
major international event that took place in Mexico city last week to address
the necessity for water for growth and development in all aspects of society
and which I had the honour of attending.

Background

The 2001 census revealed that over 600 000 households were without basic
sanitation facilities, with the Eastern Cape the province having the biggest
backlog in the country.

Alfred Nzo District Municipality faces major challenges in confronting
poverty with the overall poverty index standing at around 76 percent. The
leadership of the Alfred Nzo and local municipalities are faced with daunting
challenges and responsibilities to deliver. According to the 2001 census the
backlog in ventilated improved pit latrines stood at 115 300 households in
Alfred Nzo.

To date Alfred Nzo Municipality has provided 20 930 rural households with
water. In September 2004 the district municipality initiated the Alfred Nzo
rural household sanitation programme and in conjunction with community leaders
established nine zonal municipal service centres. A total of 18 324 units have
been completed, 4 000 of which are corrugated iron structures. The programme up
to January this year employed a total of 12 061 community labour. Skills
transfers also occurred.

Different levels of service are rendered to different categories of users in
the Eastern Cape with rural communities receiving Ventilated Improved Pit
Latrines (VIP), informal settlements small bore water system, urban communities
water borne and farm dwellers VIP to waterborne services.

The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry as sector leader works in
conjunction with the provincial sanitation task team which manages sanitation
activities and reports to the Integrated Water Services Management Forum
(IWSMF). Over and above implementing sanitation projects, the task team assists
with support to the district municipalities as water services authorities. The
support to district municipalities includes a water services authority’s
business plan and the implementation thereof support staff in the district
Municipalities themselves, the addressing of policies, by-laws and free basic
services, health and hygiene awareness programmes, sanitation resource centres
and also school and clinic programmes.

Meeting the challenges

In regard to the 2005/06 municipal infrastructure grant allocation for the
eradication of the sanitation backlog R522 698 556 has been budgeted for 154
projects in the Eastern Cape. Of this the Alfred Nzo Municipality will receive
R90 027 988 for eight projects.

National government has set targets for the eradication of water service
backlogs namely: 2008 for bucket eradication; 2008 for the provision of water
supply and 2010 for sanitation service delivery.

The challenge facing my Department, stakeholders and partners to meet the
targets is an on going one. Delivery for the 20/2002 was only 3 169 latrines
completed. During 20/2003 a further 11 702 household were served indicating
that delivery increased three fold. But if the target as set by national
government is to be met, delivery must be increased a further ten-fold.

In 2003/04 further progress was made in the increase of delivery as some 32
171 household latrines were completed showing an additional three fold increase
in delivery. During the 2004/05 financial year a total of 58 371 household
latrines were completed. A similar type of progress in the increase of the
production of household latrines was planned for 2005/06 but due to flattening
off of the capacity in the region and the swing from my Department as
implementer to district municipalities as implementer through the Municipal
Infrastructure Grant (MIG) programme it was expected that the acceleration
would slow down. Progress reported by the district municipalities up to the end
of January 2006 was just over 30 000 household latrines. This though excludes
the number of buckets that have been eradicated in the meantime.

Presently a total number of 154 MIG programme projects are in the
implementing stage in the 2005/2006 financial year of which 69 are new
projects. This figure includes both district municipality and my Department's
implemented projects. Although the focus has always been on rural household
sanitation, recent developments have broadened the focus to include informal
settlement; urban and peri-urban areas, farm dwellers and institutional
sanitation (clinic and school programme). This obviously puts the total
sanitation requirement more in perspective.

The challenges the region must face include the lack of adequately
capacitated human resources in both the sector department and at the district
municipalities, a lack of funding and a programme to efficiently and speedily
distribute it. A lack of adequate resources to physically implement projects
and a few of material suppliers who still does not understand the need to
supply the required material on time. Other challenges include clarity on what
the actual backlogs are and clarity on the level of service to be provided.
Co-ordination between sector departments to provide the most efficient
implementation process also remains a challenge.

Given the above challenges we as partners must confront our constraints no
matter what their nature. Project consolidate was initiated precisely to
uncover and overcome obstacles and constraints facing municipalities. The
assessment of the backlogs has been a difficult exercise and greatly influences
grants to municipalities for basic infrastructure. My Department's directorate
planning and information is currently comparing information pertinent to
backlogs from a number of sources including my Department's information
systems, information compiled by municipalities and data from Statistics South
Africa. We need to use the project consolidate approach to get to the bottom of
our problems and address water and sanitation constraints. Secondly my
Department, the water services sector and local government are all working
towards the same objectives and we must work together to find solutions and to
achieve our targets. Collaboration needs to be properly planned.

This brings me to the support role of my Department and of the water
services sector as a whole. National and provincial government have a
constitutional obligation to support municipalities in fulfilling their powers
and functions and we must ensure that this role is effectively executed.

Together with our partners such as the Department of Provincial and Local
Government, the South African Local Government Association, the National
Treasury and other stakeholders in the water sector there are a number of
programmes through which we are providing support to Water Services Authorities
(WSA). These include the WSA capacity development business plans, the municipal
infrastructure grant programme, the national and provincial joint response
teams providing section 78 supports, the transfer programme, the institutional
reform initiatives, capacity building for water services authorities, planning
support and so on. But I am not going to discuss these programmes in any detail
as they are ongoing programmes designed to ensure infrastructure and
institutional sustainability which I am sure you are very familiar with. What I
want to focus on is practical hands on support that addresses the urgent
problems and challenges you are facing. The targets which are an integral part
of your integrated development plan are a good example to illustrate some of
the challenges.

Our water and sanitation targets are politically challenging because they
are about fundamental human rights. They are a planning challenge because they
involve an accurate identification of backlogs, planning infrastructure,
allocation of sufficient capital funds, provision for ongoing operating costs
and determining responsibility for ongoing operation and maintenance.

Each capital project identified in the integrated development plan and water
services development plans has to comply with various conditions and criteria
and has to be registered. Feasibility studies, business plans, procuring
implementing agents, making use of local labour and ensuring community
participation in project planning and implementation are all necessary steps,
but these steps require careful project planning, skilled personnel, proper
systems and collaboration between stakeholders.

We are aware of the many legislative and administrative requirements placed
on municipalities and we are aware that it is not always easy to comply with
these requirements given the many demands and challenges that you are faced
with. The challenge we as national government and as the water sector are faced
with is how to support the Department of Local Government in achieving
sustainable water services? How do we provide hands on support that will have a
positive impact on your work? How do we assist you to navigate as smoothly as
possible all the conditions, requirements and steps to implementing good
project and to put in place sustainable arrangements? How do we make it easier?
These are some of the challenges we are faced with but we need your input on
how we can best support you.

So what are we doing about these challenges? Our first step is to work with
you to identify the obstacles and the real needs of your municipality in terms
of ensuring sustainable water and sanitation services. In this regard we have
established teams of project consolidate champions who are personnel of my
Department who will fulfil an interface role between your municipality and my
Department's Eastern Cape regional office.

Whatever problem, delay or blockage you are experiencing the role of the
champions is to facilitate ‘unblocking’ by communicating the problem and
ensuring that the right support is provided to the municipality.

To this end my Department has developed a water services authority
checklist. This checklist is a tool designed to quickly identify legislative
compliance and capacity gaps in line with project consolidate. Whilst the quick
assessment will provide information for prioritising and consolidating support,
more in depth service provision assessments will also be undertaken to assess
performance and provide water services benchmarks. This checklist exercise is a
first step. We welcome any suggestions or ideas as to how best to identify
needs and support required.

We are equipping the project consolidate champions with the various tools
and guidelines we have developed as well as contact details of technical
experts within my Department. Their role is to ensure that municipalities can
easily access supporting tools and technical support. A Department of Water
Affairs and Forestry Internet pages with all the tools for water services
authorities is currently up and running. Peer support and lesson learning is
one of the most successful means of building capacity and we would like to see
your efforts shared with other municipalities. Our project consolidate
champions can facilitate the sharing of tools and best practice.

Establishing water services authority bylaws, policies, plans and regulatory
capacity often requires technical or specialist support. We aim to provide
hands on support to prepare capacity building business plans to access funds
from the municipal systems improvement grant and possibly from other funding
sources as well. From my Department’s perspective we are aiming to ensure that
every municipality reaches a certain level of proficiency as a water services
authority. We thus want to ensure that you have the necessary tools, funds to
access specialist support, access to technical expertise within our regional
and national offices and access to relevant information and networks.

In line with the commitments outlined in the strategic framework for water
services, a sector support strategy is in the process of being developed.
Consultations will be held in each province and I invite you to participate in
the process so that we can ensure that the water services sector is properly
equipped to support local government and so that local government receives the
support it needs. A major task is how to turn around our water services
providers so that services are properly operated, managed and maintained. We
would like to see managers of successful water services providers becoming part
of a reference team that can advise on best practice and the most effective
strategies to provide support. Another support challenge is how to streamline
the various support programmes for local government so that section 78 support
compliments water services development plans planning support which compliments
the municipal infrastructure grant support and so on.

Central to support is collaboration with the province and collaboration
amongst all stakeholders in the sector. We have encouraged the development of
provincial water services plans (also referred to as the Masibambane Water
Services Strategy here in the Eastern Cape), which provides an overall
‘provincial’ picture of water services in the province including status quo and
objectives to achieve the planned future situation. The purpose of these plans
is to outline how the sector will work together to support local government
water services needs as well as contribute to the province’s growth and
development plan. These plans are meant to operationalise co-operative
governance and ensure a sector wide collaborative approach to the water
services delivery process.

Conclusion

I have no doubt that under the very capable leadership of the mayors and
councillors in this district and its local municipalities, the mechanisms for
intergovernmental collaboration will continually be strengthened so that the
implementation of the targets in your integrated development plan can be
achieved. The progressive achievement of our targets across each household
brings us one step closer to realising the peoples’ contract for a better South
Africa. It is the right of all people to have access to a basic level of water
and sanitation service, it is our duty therefore to ensure universal coverage.
My door is open my Department’s doors are open if there is anything slowing
down or preventing universal coverage I would like it on the top of my agenda.
I wish you well with taking your integrated development plan forward.

Let’s remember: water is life. Sanitation is dignity.

I thank you.

Issued by: Ministry for Water Affairs and Forestry
28 March 2006