L Hendricks: Baswa le Meetse Awards ceremony

30 March 2007

Chairperson of the portfolio committee on Water Affairs and Forestry, Ms
Connie September and members of the portfolio committee
Councillors
Members of the Diplomatic Corp
Representative from Irish Aid, Mr Malcolm White
CEOs of Water Boards

1. Introduction

I would like to welcome you to the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
annual Baswa le Meetse Awards. These awards have become an inspirational and
symbolic feature in our departmental calendar. They are one of the highlights
of our year as they encapsulate the links between water, sanitation, health and
hygiene as well as arts and culture, and the youth. This year we are
celebrating the fifth year of the Baswa le Meetse Awards, hence the theme is
"5th Element."

We are honoured that a number of important people such as Ministers, Members
of Parliament, Ambassadors and senior private sector representatives have
joined us today to witness the brilliance, energy and enthusiasm of our youth.
All of these people in important positions realise that we need to support the
youth and the necessity for our young people to acquire the skills needed to
grow and develop our country.

2. Background of Baswa le Meetse

In the audience today we have gathered from all corners of our country, the
scientists, engineers and artists of tomorrow. We will be honouring their
achievements and will announce the national winners of the Baswa le Meetse
Awards 2007. These are the students who have done the best and are our national
champions, the creme de la creme and they should be extremely proud of their
achievements.

It is a pleasure for me to see these brilliant young children taking
advantage of the opportunities for further development that have been created
for them as a result of initiatives like Baswa le Meetse. They are an example
to the youth of this country. Sadly there are many young people who do not
value the importance of education and further developing their skills.

Baswa le Meetse encourages youth to participate in education and awareness
programmes on water, sanitation, health and hygiene. The grade six learners
convey health and hygiene messages through drama, music, poetry, praise singing
and poster development. Their projects are guided by the theme "Washing of
Hands, Use and Care of Sanitation Facilities for a Healthy Life."

The awards we are handing out later are preceded by competitions at
district, provincial and national levels. All learners who are here today are
provincial winners and the national winners have been selected from amongst
them. Through the generosity of our sponsors we have wonderful prizes and the
provincial winners are eligible for cash prizes of which 50% will be shared
amongst the learners who will spend it on education-related items. The balance
will be spent on school resources based on the priorities identified by the
school and the community. In addition to cash prizes, the national winners are
also eligible for water pumps and media classrooms. The success of these
learners will therefore contribute to improving their school environment.

Through Baswa le Meetse, we showcase our cultural heritage while respecting
our diversity and recognising the youth as the future. This project is
important for my Department because not only does it encourage our youth
academically but it also raises the profile of sanitation and health and
hygiene issues that are a priority for my department and government as a
whole.

In addition to these awards we are also here today to be educated on water
resource management and sanitation by these hardworking future leaders. Their
message will be communicated very creatively through spectacular performances
with captivating and educating messages. Definitely, this is an opportunity not
to be missed. As a minister and a mother, I would like to say 'Halala Youth,
Halala.'

3. Water Week and Sanitation Week

Ladies and gentlemen, learners, many of you would be aware that this event
takes place during our National Sanitation Week. Last week we held National
Water Week and we have been very busy over the last two weeks promoting the
importance of our water resources, access to sanitation and the need for health
and hygiene.

On Monday, 19 March we had the sod turning ceremony for the building of a
dam in Limpopo, the following day we visited a school in KwaMaphumulo,
KwaZulu-Natal where we launched a programme highlighting water safety and on
Thursday and Friday we held a conference on water conservation, where local and
international speakers shared with us their views and experiences on the
importance of water conservation and water demand management as well as how to
tackle these challenges. We also launched a book on the relationship between
government policy, scientific research and society.

Launch of sanitation week was held in Msinga in KwaZulu-Natal where we
launched a health and hygiene strategy with the Department of Health. We also
visited Mount Fletcher in Eastern Cape where we handed over toilets to
communities that have long had to do without these basics facilities.

Last week during our Water Conservation Conference, Professor Biswas, who is
one of the world's leading thinkers in the water sector met with us and made a
presentation at the conference. Of concern to all of us, is that with
increasing demand for water there is the potential that there will not be
sufficient water for these needs. Already in South Africa we are facing huge
challenges in the amount of water we have, as we receive on average only half
of the world average rainfall and face the additional problem of periodic
droughts. The view of Professor Biswas which is shared by many of us is that
the critical issue to dealing with water scarcity is governance by our water
institutions and in how we manage our water resources. He is also strongly of
the opinion that we cannot solve our present and future water challenges by
looking at how things have been done in the past. The solutions he argues do
not lie with traditional approaches and thinking, and we require innovation and
new ideas to solve the water challenges of the future. I believe that by
focusing on the youth of our country and inspiring them to enter the water and
sanitation fields, we are creating the potential for such solutions to be
found.

The key focus and message of this year's Water Week was conservation and
protection of our scarce water resources and the need for South Africans to
change their behaviour so that we do not waste water. We must also stop
polluting our rivers, dams and wetlands as these are precious resources. With
increasing demand for water and the need to achieve 6% economic growth, there
will be greater demands on our water resources and we need creative responses.
We are tackling these challenges by building new infrastructure and conserving
water and we need to 'plug the water leaks.' As President Mbeki pointed out in
his weekly newsletter in 'ANC Today,' "we have to use our limited water
supplies more efficiently and effectively. We must also put into the larger
equation serious consideration of the longer-term impact of global warming and
climate change. Our celebration of water as a source of life must translate
into practical actions."

The President also pointed to the need for creative solutions and questioned
why we are not looking to desalinating and treating sea water for possible use.
A challenge from the President that we will need to take on board along with
better utilisation of waste water, removing alien invasive species, improved
infrastructure, and better management of existing water resources. Minister
Xingwana, solutions may also exist in improved efficiencies in the agricultural
sector which is our largest single user of water and the sector that suffers
the most during droughts. There is a great deal that needs to be done and
amongst us today may one of the future scientists or engineers who will come up
with the much needed solution to our challenges.

4. Youth Development

Ladies and gentlemen, my Department has been mandated to ensure sustainable
water and forestry resources for future generations. Our vision will be
realised only if our society is empowered with knowledge and skills. Our Water
Week and Sanitation Week are key components of our awareness programmes as are
our initiatives to support and develop the youth.

As government, we are committed to the democratisation of the management of
water resources and it is for this reason that we encourage the participation
of our communities and our children as stakeholders. It is in this context that
my Department is passionately driving education and awareness programmes such
as the 2020 Vision for Water and Sanitation Education Programme. The Baswa le
Meetse Awards is a project of the 2020 Vision Programme.

Through this programme, we hope that learners would be able to participate
effectively in water resource management and the promotion of health and
hygiene. Over the past few years particularly on World Water Monitoring Day
(which takes place on 18 September this year) we have been getting learners to
identify problems related to water and sanitation in their schools and
communities. Last year we ran a programme in 40 schools whereby learners were
given water quality test kits, trained on how to use them and conduct tests on
water quality in their own local environment. These learners were asked to give
feedback to their local municipality and (Department of Water Affairs and
Forestry) DWAF on their findings. This year we look forward to greater numbers
of schools participating in this exciting initiative.

Ladies and gentlemen, through the 2020 vision programme, we have reached 20
000 learners from both rural and urban areas and instilled the culture of water
conservation, health and hygiene, awareness about alien invasive species and
general natural resource conservation. We hope that this initiative is
stimulating their interest in water resource management careers.

We are aware that at present the challenge of scarce skills in the sector
requires urgent attention. There is clearly a shortage of skills especially in
the science and technical fields' professions that are key to our economic
growth and development. These skills gaps however present an opportunity for
our youth to go into highly sought after professions. In particular we would
like to see an increase in the number of woman engineers and scientists in the
country. Because these professions require our children to study science and
mathematics, my department plans to provide identified schools with resources
such as laboratories and computers so that the learners have proper facilities.
We are currently engaging with potential sponsors to install laboratories in
five schools.

We are also committing ourselves to supporting learners who wish to pursue
careers in water, sanitation and forestry. We will track successful learners
from grade six so that by the time they enter high school or a tertiary
institution they can be awarded bursaries if they qualify. I am proud to
announce that we have already offered bursaries to 10 learners of whom two are
studying civil engineering and one is studying micro-biology. We have also
provided 60 computers to six schools in KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State and North
West.

We have also established a Learning Academy in the Department of Water
Affairs and Forestry which is a graduate training programme and will contribute
to addressing the skills level in the sector. The Water sector is one of the
most exciting sectors you can ever be involved in. We will await your
participation.

5. Conclusion

In conclusion Programme Director, Prof Biswas in his address to us last week
was inspired by the excellence that already exists in South Africa and he feels
that we have the potential to be a 'knowledge hub' of the water sector in
Africa. With the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) programme and
good collaboration that already exists between South Africa and other countries
in the continent, I believe this is possible and it would give us an
opportunity to share success stories and pockets of excellence that exists
across the continent in how communities are responding to our water and
sanitation challenges.

To the learners I have two last messages firstly not all of you can be the
national prize winners but to me you are all winners for what you have achieved
and for being here today. Winning is also about learning, participating and
making a difference to your communities. Secondly, during this week we have
given many important messages about practising good hygiene to limit the spread
of diseases like diarrhoea and skin infections. There is another important
message that all our youth must be aware of and that is the very real dangers
of HIV/AIDS. The youth are most vulnerable to contracting this disease through
risky sexual behaviour and because they believe it won't happen to them. We do
not want to lose our promising scientists and engineers of tomorrow, the people
who will provide the solutions to our water challenges. So remember your ABC
(Abstain, Be faithful or Condomise).

Finally, there are a number of people to thank for their involvement in
Baswa le Meetse and in today's programme:

1. I would like to thank all the sponsors MTN, ABSA, Play-pumps
International and Rand Water. I have noted your commitments. Our children will
have access to information through media classrooms provided by MTN, prize
money from ABSA and access to water through water pumps from Roundabout. Rand
Water will ensure that the water pumps are installed. On behalf of Government,
I wish to thank you for responding to the call made to the private sector by
our President. I have no words but to say "Nangamso! Ukwanda kwaliwa
ngumthakathi! Ningadinwa!"
2. Thank you to the SABC, who play an important role in taking these critical
messages to the broader community.
3. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the principals, teachers,
parents and community members who supported these learners and encouraged them
to come this far. They will need your ongoing support if they are to become our
future scientists.
4. Special thanks must go to the judges. Choosing winners from amongst these
intelligent learners was not child's play but you did an excellent job.
5. I would like to thank the officials of my Department and MTN as well as all
other people involved in organising this event. I appreciate the hard work you
have put in making this event a success. Keep up the good work.

Let me ask you to give a round of applause to all those who have made this
programme and today the great success it has become! This programme is an
excellent example of the spirit of partnership that is needed to address the
huge challenges that face our country.

Educate the child, educate the nation.

Let us take good care of our water resources not only for our sake but for
the sake of the environment, our health, our nation's growth and prosperity,
and for the sake of those who will come after us.

I thank you

Issued by: Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
30 March 2007