B Sonjica: Water Affairs and Forestry Budget Vote debate, NCOP

24 May 2006

Honourable Chairperson of the NCOP
Premiers here present
Honourable Members
Members of Executive Councils
Dignitaries
Ladies and gentlemen

It is my honour and pleasure to once again address the NCOP on what has been
keeping our Department busy over the last 12 months.

Chairperson, let me start by saying, that whilst our Department is a sector
leader in forestry and water sectors, our achievements in the targets set by
government depends on how well we co-ordinate the implementation of our
legislation and in collaboration with provinces and municipalities as provided
for in the Constitution and the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act 13 of
2005. I am happy to say that in addition to progress made in the delivery of
water and sanitation, we have also made progress in our core function as a
sector leader, a supporter and a regulator.

In the context of our theme for this year, which is “Water and Forests for
Shared Economic Growth and Development”, our Department has seriously
interrogated its relevance and role in supporting the objectives of the
Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA). We have
always emphasised that water is not only life itself but it is also central to
the growth and economic development that our Deputy President is passionately
driving. Our Department also contributes to this important programme.

It may be necessary to remind the members that the delivery of water and
sanitation is now the responsibility of municipalities, however, as a leader,
our Department remains accountable for progress made in this regard. I am sure
you will agree with me when I say the challenge of being accountable for
activities that take place in another sphere of government requires not only
strong leadership but effective intergovernmental relations as well. The
Intergovernmental Relations Act therefore becomes critical to our
department.

Our Department has successfully spearheaded a number of collaborative
initiatives such as the establishment of provincial water sector forums in all
of the provinces. In all the nine provinces, we have functional collaborative
structures where all water and provincial issues are deliberated upon.
Internally, we are also looking at establishing a stronger intergovernmental
relations unit that will ensure that collaboration between our department and
other partners in the sector are strengthened. Most provinces have succeeded in
developing Provincial Water Sector Development Plans (WSDPs) with our
support.

One of the highlights of our achievements are the water summits we held in
all nine provinces in the last year. These summits culminated in a very
successful National Water Summit that was attended by about 560 people from all
corners of our country. Chairperson, I am proud to say that these summits were
an enormous success and we owe that to the overwhelming support we received
from Premiers, MECs, Mayors, councillors and senior officials of these
provinces. I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude for this support.

The primary objective of the summits was to understand the unique challenges
facing each province when it comes to water and sanitation delivery. The
summits were another mechanism to seek ways of supporting the provinces in
their Provincial Growth and Development Plans (PGDPs). I can mention that lack
of capacity to deliver, operation and maintenance of infrastructure, and
challenges of meeting our targets came out prominently and consistently in each
province. It is from these summits that today, we can safely say that we fully
comprehend the challenges and opportunities facing service delivery in each
province and in the country as a whole.

The outcome of these summits complemented Project Consolidate and the
Izimbizos that our President held throughout the country. We have listened
attentively to issues raised by municipalities at the Izimbizos, Water Summits
and Project Consolidate initiatives. This has led to the Department formulating
a Water Services Sector Support Strategy, which will be launched this year.

With less than 24 months and less than 48 months before meeting our water
and sanitation targets respectively, our focus in the last year has been on
intensifying our support function to the municipalities. This has led to the
Department engaging in the following activities:
* the development of a Sector Wide Capacity building Strategy which we plan to
launch by August this year
* the secondment and deployment of Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
(DWAF) engineers and technicians to municipalities to provide hands-on support
in line with Project Consolidate
* the transfer of funds to the Department of Provincial and Local Government
(DPLG) to mobilise more technical skills from the private sector
* the deployment of 21 Engineers to support the process of eradicating buckets
by 2007
* we have 11 engineers and water resources specialists from the Republic of
Cuba who have been deployed in Limpopo, North West, Eastern Cape and
KwaZulu-Natal provinces. We are exploring options of getting more expertise in
the areas of hydrological services, engineering and forestry sectors from Cuba.
We are also exploring an option of sending our young learners to Cuba to bring
back the technical skills that our country desperately needs.
* we have leveraged and mobilised capacity that exists in our Water Boards for
the benefit of the struggling municipalities.

Furthermore, like most government departments, we are interrogating the
suitability of our organisational structure in relation to our legislative
mandate. It is in this context that we are embarking on a strategy that will
lead to stronger and more efficient regional offices which will be in a better
position to take up their leadership role on all water related matters.

Chairperson, we need to emphasise that more work is needed to accelerate the
pace of delivery to meet the targets of the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs). The delivery of water remains constant at approximately 1 million per
annum and we see a steady increase in the delivery of sanitation services.

Maintenance and refurbishment of our infrastructure

As a sector leader, we are also guarding jealously that our hard earned
progress is not jeopardised. Last year a financial modelling exercise
undertaken on behalf of the DPLG by the Development Bank of Southern Africa
(DBSA) found that the delivery rate in some major municipalities may result in
these municipalities acquiring infrastructure at such a pace that over the next
few years, they would increasingly be unable to afford the operations and
maintenance costs of such infrastructure.

Studies also show that there is a lack of sufficient investment in asset
maintenance and in the longer term this will result in negative health impacts
and expensive refurbishment projects. This problem is a serious threat to the
progress we are making in service delivery and the quality of our drinking
water. This issue also came out very strongly at the National Water Summit held
recently. To counteract these risks, we are putting a strategy in place to
ensure proper water and sanitation asset management by municipalities. In the
Northern Cape and Limpopo, our regional offices are already involved in very
creative support initiatives to municipalities in this regard.

Following problems experienced in Delmas, our Department has embarked on a
comprehensive drinking water management programme to support municipalities in
ensuring that the quality of our drinking water is managed effectively. As a
country, we are not prepared to compromise the quality of our drinking water
which is acknowledged internationally. It is in this context that we have
embarked on a robust support and monitoring programme for all municipalities.
Municipalities are now submitting monthly drinking water quality reports to our
Department where it is stored as part of our National Data. Through this
programme, we are able to pick up problems, raise them with municipalities for
a speedy intervention where necessary. We are also considering the
establishment of an internal specialist unit within our Department that will
manage the programme nationally and be able to promptly intervene in case of
disasters.

As challenging as this task is, we have already made successes. In the Free
State we have developed a comprehensive model for drinking water quality that
is not only functional but very effective as well. It is our aim to replicate
this good practice to other parts of the country. Chairperson, seeing is
believing - members can see this programme in our exhibition outside.

Lastly, on this matter, the allegations on maggots found in our drinking
water, were thoroughly investigated by our Department and external parties. I
wish to say once again, these investigations confirm that our water is safe to
drink.

Economic Growth and Development through Water Infrastructure Development

Chairperson, you may be aware that our Department is in the process of
making more water available for basic needs as well as to support the envisaged
mining development in the Limpopo area as part of out Department supporting
development initiatives of provinces. This involves the construction of the De
Hoop dam as the first phase of a project that will cost R4,9 billion. A project
worth R2,5 billion is underway in Mpumalanga to improve water supply to our big
users like Sasol and Eskom

In the Western Cape, the Berg River Project which is due to be finalised by
the end of next year is also under construction and is progressing well. This
development is meant to improve the impending water shortage in the Western
Cape Metropole. Chairperson, all these initiatives can only be an illustration
of the importance of water to growth and development in this country. We are
also progressing with the establishment of a Branch and an Agency that will be
responsible for the management and development of infrastructure on behalf of
the Department.

The Department is part of a development programme in the Umzimvubu area
which is in its initial stages of planning. Huge potential for hydropower,
afforestation and agricultural development has been identified in this area and
we believe that the initiative will bring huge economic growth benefits in this
part of the country.

Whilst our approach to regulation of the sector is a developmental one and
is guided by the Intergovernmental Relations Framework, achieving regulatory
compliance, good governance and a sustainable environment is key to our
Department. I am deeply encouraged by the call from the water sector to put in
place regulatory framework to ensure that all the above issues are
addressed.

The Department is increasingly taking up its role as regulator and sector
leader. In this regard the Department has drafted a regulatory strategy for
water services and is in the process of revising the Water Services Act. The
regulatory strategy will be finalised this financial year. However, various
parts of the strategy are already being implemented, for example, the system
for drinking water quality management.

Chairperson, in combating poverty, we have zero tolerance for unlawful water
users and any other offenders of the National Water Act and Forestry Act.
Building on achievements in the previous year in this regard, I am glad to
announce that we had very successful initiatives on combating illegal
abstraction, storage and use of water in the Free State province. It is
envisaged that this function will be intensified as we are currently busy with
establishing an enforcement unit within the Department. We have learnt good
lessons from our sister department, the Department of Environmental Affairs and
Tourism who are making use of Green Scorpions. Watch this space for our Blue
Scorpions. We are also in the process of revising our Water Services Bill to
deal with some of the challenges we are picking up in the implementation of the
legislation. The final Draft of the National Water Services Bill will be ready
for submission to Cabinet and for public comment next year.

Statistics show that 74,3% of our people with basic infrastructure are
receiving their Free Basic Water. Whilst this is a big achievement, we are
concerned about the inability of some municipalities to implement the Free
Basic Water policy. We are therefore prepared to scale up our capacity to
support this policy and also to deal with practical challenges like limited
water and financial resources faced by many municipalities. We are currently
also reviewing the relevance of this policy to new challenges posed by the
impact of HIV/AIDS and poverty.

Our contribution to the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South
Africa (AsgiSA)

Chairperson, like all other Departments, it is our responsibility to
contribute to the noble objectives of AsgiSA and we are taking this
responsibility very seriously. Our plan in this new financial year is to
structure our programmes in such a way that they contribute directly to the
objectives of AsgiSA.

A typical illustration of this was the development of the “Operation Gijima”
programme that our Department launched in the Limpopo province recently. This
programme is aimed at accelerating sanitation delivery in rural areas, whilst
building skills and creating jobs. This is in line with the Expanded Public
Works Programme (EPWP) and its successful implementation will ensure that we
reach our 2010 Sanitation targets. The Department has allocated a total of R11,
4 million for 2006/07 for the job creation project and we are focusing on
Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West and the Eastern Cape.

I am also glad to announce that the first sanitation week in the country and
in the world was launched by our Department in March 2006, in Tarkastad in the
Eastern Cape. South Africa is the first country to implement the decisions
taken in Dakar in 2004 that all countries should have sanitation week. This new
campaign is aimed at promoting health and hygiene and raising the profile of
sanitation in the country.

Taking our contribution to poverty alleviation further, Chairperson, last
year, I launched the Water Allocation Reform (WAR). This programme is aimed at
reallocating water to historically disadvantaged communities and individuals in
order to address the racial and gender biases that are still present in access
to water for productive purposes. This year, we intend intensifying the
implementation of this programme and identifying “quick wins” in terms of areas
where we have surplus water that we can speedily allocate to communities for
small scale agricultural use.

Through this programme, we have a grand vision and we hope to see poor
communities and small scale farmers engaging in commercial activities. As part
of this Reform Programme we have made huge investments in several irrigation
schemes in the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, and Free State. However, more work
still needs to be done in terms of bringing other Departments like the
Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs on board. As part of addressing
underdevelopment and marginalisation and ensuring that the poor share in
growing prosperity, we have initiated a programme for rainwater harvesting in
rural communities as well as supporting small scale black farmers with a budget
of R25 million for this financial year.

We are currently completing the pilot of our rainwater-harvesting programme
with 73 rainwater harvesting tanks being built in 25 villages across Free
State, Eastern Cape, Limpopo and North West. We have here in our midst, Mme
Selinah Mokhothu from the Free State province who can bear testimony on how
this project has changed her life. Chairperson, this is what matters most to
our Department, i.e. practically touching and changing the lives of our rural
poor, especially women, for the better.

During this financial year we envisage spending R12 million on a further 1
500 rainwater harvesting tanks across the four provinces mentioned. We are
supporting small scale farmers through raw water subsidies as well as grants
for bulk infrastructure, purchase of water entitlements, irrigation development
and expansion and operation and maintenance.

Our Working for Water programme, recognised internationally as one of the
most effective programmes to address the problem of Invasive Alien Plants
(IAPs), combining water and environmental issues with social development
objectives has since its inception invested more than R2,500 million and
establishing programmes in over 300 areas around the country creating roughly
20 000 short term jobs on an annual basis. Employment opportunities were
focused on local community, women, youth and the disabled.

This R480 million programme is administered through the Department of Water
and Forestry and works in partnership with local communities, National
Government departments such as Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Agriculture,
Trade and Industry as well as provincial departments of agriculture,
conservation and environment, research foundations and private companies.

Water is both a Social and Economic Commodity - Let us conserve it

The fact that South Africa is a dry country is no fiction but a reality.
Whilst our Department has intensified educational campaigns aimed at
encouraging society to conserve water, through programmes like Baswa Le Meetse
and 2020 Vision. In this regard, Chairperson I would like to present to the
Honourable Members the three famous young men in our midst - Motebele Motshidi,
Sechaba Ramabenyane and Pontsho Moletsane from Sechaba Semaketse Combined
School. These brilliant young men are the international winners of the youth
competition called the Stockholm Junior Water Prize for 2005.

These learners developed a project called Nocturnal Hydro Minimiser. This
project is designed to use water efficiently for irrigation by activating the
water tap at night and only when evaporation levels are very low. It ensures
that gardens are only watered when the soil has lost the necessary moisture
needed by plants. This feature makes it more effective in saving water compared
to some commercial models that provide water regardless of whether plants need
it or not.

I have also been extremely impressed by initiatives that some municipalities
have embarked in this regard. Commendable initiatives are being implemented in
Gauteng and here in the Western Cape where municipalities have embarked on
water conservation and water demand management strategies. Great strides have
also been made in the establishment of Catchment Management Agencies (CMA) in
accordance with international best practice of decentralising and democratising
water resources management. The Inkomati CMA has already been established and
during 2006/07 we will establish an additional four CMAs, being the Thukela;
Usuthu-Mhlathuze; Gouritz and Olifants-Doorns Catchment Management
Agencies.

Forestry contribution to poverty alleviation

Our forestry industry is well developed and is meeting and even exceeding
standards set by developed countries. There is considerable potential for
growth in this sector and it therefore has a major role to play in poverty
eradication and job creation. However, if we want to realise this role, we have
to address transformation issues such as ownership, employment equity, skills
development, enterprise development and management control. We strongly believe
that the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) Charter, that we
launched in April last year, among other things, will be instrumental in
realising the goals of transformation and will ensure participation of
previously disadvantaged groups in the entire forestry value chain. I am glad
to announce that the Draft Charter will be ready for consultation by the end of
May this year.

Our afforestation programme, which is part of AsgiSA is underway in the
Eastern Cape where approximately 100 000 hectares of suitable land have been
identified for forestry development. There is potential for a further 253 000
hectares beyond these strategic blocks to be developed in the medium to
long-term. It is envisaged that a total of about 120 000 households will
benefit from this development. The Department has already put in place
intergovernmental processes to ensure the fast tracking of the afforestation
programme in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.

This year will also see the beginning of the development of a saw log
strategy for South Africa. This is a crucial matter as a looming shortage of
saw log timber may have an adverse impact in the forestry sector. Lastly,
Chairperson, I stand here proud on behalf of our country about the positive
recognition that we received at the Fourth World Water Forum held recently in
Mexico. Our country was recognised not only for the progress made on providing
water to the poor, but it was repeatedly mentioned as one of the countries with
the most progressive and pro-poor policies in the world.

Women have played and continue to play a critical role in the water,
sanitation and forestry sectors. Every year we recognise these women throughout
the country and celebrate their hard work through our Women in Water Awards,
which is now called the Women in Water, Forestry and Sanitation Awards. Within
the Department itself, we are changing the gender balance and strengthening our
newly established gender and disability unit.

At this point in time, I would like to thank my Special Advisors for their
contribution, advice and support over the last year. My sincere gratitude and
appreciation goes to my Director-General, Jabu Sindane, for his leadership and
commitment and to all the officials in the Department, for their hard work and
dedication.

Thank you also to the NCOP’s Select Committee on Land and Environmental
Affairs as well the entire water and forestry sectors, including municipalities
and their association, the South African Local Government Association (SALGA),
the South African Association of Water Users (SAAWU), the Trans Caledon Tunnel
Agency (TCTA), Water Boards, the Water Research Commission (WRC) and the
National Advisory Councils for Water and Forests and all other stakeholders and
partners for their co-operation and support during the past year.

Combating poverty means acting now, not later. My Department will not rest
until the last person has been served with water and sanitation!!

I thank you.

Issued by: Ministry of Water Affairs and Forestry
24 May 2006