L Hendricks: Launch of National Sanitation Week

26 March 2007

Programme Director
Director-General of the Department of Health
Members of Parliament
Honourable mayors
Councillors
Amakhosi
Community of uMzinyathi District Municipality
Ladies and gentlemen

1. Introduction

It is a great honour for me to launching our National Sanitation Week 2007
here in Msinga. We have chosen Msinga for this launch because of the excellent
work done in the Keate's Drift Sanitation Project. I am please to be joined
today by the Director-General from the Department of Health who joins us for
the launching of the National Health and Hygiene Education Strategy. This
strategy recognises the close relationship between the delivery of water and
sanitation infrastructure and the improved health of a community. The strategy
also informs our theme for this year's national Sanitation Week which is
"Sanitation for Health and Dignity".

This year is the second year we are holding a national Sanitation Week and I
am proud to that last year South Africa was the first country in the world to
hold this week. The government recognises the importance of sanitation in
improving the lives people and giving them dignity. In the past few years the
Department of Water Affairs and Forestry in co-operation with local government
has dramatically increased the amount of resources allocated to provision of
sanitation and ensure that universal access to sanitation is high on our
national agenda.

The purpose of national Sanitation Week is therefore to highlight the work
that we are doing to ensure that all South Africans have access to sanitation,
the critical importance of looking after our sanitation facilities and toilets
and to inform our communities of the need to wash their hands after going to
the toilet and to wash their hands before preparing food, because there are
health risks in not doing so.

2. Sanitation is an international concern

Ladies and gentlemen, the lack of sanitation is a pressing challenge in many
other countries and more than 40% of world's population (that is approximately
2,4 billion people) still have no access to basic sanitation. Globally the
World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 1,8 million people die each year
from diarrhoeal diseases, mostly related to poor sanitation and hygiene. It is
estimated that 5 500 children across the world die every day from diseases
caused by contaminated food and water.

There is an international movement to address the lack of sanitation and the
United Nations (UN) General Assembly, in adopting the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) in year 2000, agreed to halve the global backlog in sanitation and
water by the year 2015. South Africa supported the adoption of these goals and
with an estimated 15 million of our citizens not having access to basic
sanitation services, our country is part of this global challenge to address
the sanitation backlog. We have however set our targets higher and committed
ourselves to ensure that all buckets in formal established settlements will be
eradicated by December 2007, all clinics will have safe and adequate water and
sanitation by December 2007, all schools will have safe and adequate water and
all households have access to basic sanitation by 2010.

To raise the importance of access to sanitation, the UN "Water Supply and
Sanitation Collaborative Council' launched an International Water Sanitation
and Hygiene (WASH) campaign. This WASH initiative was aimed at mobilising
political support and action around the world to address global backlogs in
water supply, sanitation and hygiene promotion and raise public awareness on
the need for sanitation, hygiene and safe water. One of the most important
outcomes was to gain the commitment of political, social and opinion leaders
around the world to addressing these challenges. South Africa is very
supportive of this initiative and I met with the director of this organisation
when he was out here from Geneva last week and I agreed to become one of the
champions of this WASH initiative.

3. Sanitation on the national agenda

Programme Director, because of the unacceptable mortality rate and economic
stress poor sanitation has on affected communities there must be prioritisation
of sanitation both internationally and within South Africa. We therefore need
to embark on vigorous campaigns to put it on our agenda and ensure that
everyone prioritises sanitation delivery as well as health and hygiene
awareness.

Two years ago the Minister of Health and Minister of Water Affairs and
Forestry launched the Limpopo Clinic Sanitation Project to promote health and
hygiene. Since then our departments have collaborated in the development of the
national health and hygiene education strategy that was launched today. This
strategy sets out a comprehensive approach to the delivery of sustainable and
effective health and hygiene education in South Africa. The plan is to provide
this education within programmes for the delivery of water supply and
sanitation services and through ongoing education and awareness initiatives
implemented as part of local health programmes.

Programme Director, I envisage that our presence here today will go a long
way towards closing the gap that exists between the delivery of latrines and
provision of health and hygiene education to the receivers of the latrines. We
are convinced that this co-operation is essential to make a real impact on the
health of our communities.

In the provision of water and sanitation we have already made substantial
progress during the first 13 years of our democracy. We have served nationally
about 12 million people with basic water supply infrastructure and
approximately nine million people with basic sanitation facilities. However, we
cannot be complacent as 15,3 million people still do not have access to basic
sanitation. There is still a huge task for government in partnership with
communities and other stakeholders to address this backlog.

In KwaZulu-Natal 714 000 households still need to be provided with adequate
sanitation services. This province has the second highest backlog in household
sanitation and follows Limpopo, the province with the highest backlog, which
still has more than 810 000 households lacking adequate sanitation. The Eastern
Cape has the third highest backlog with more than 450 000 households lacking
sanitation. To meet our 2010 target for sanitation, delivery in KwaZulu-Natal
alone has to increase from the current delivery rate of around 50 000
structures per year to at least 180 000 structures per year.

Substantial financial resources have been allocated to addressing the
remaining backlog and national government has allocated approximately R3
billion of the total Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) budget to water and
sanitation services for this financial year. Forty percent of this allocation
which translates to R1,2 billion is earmarked for sanitation delivery.
Provincial and local governments have also allocated resources to addressing
this critical challenge.

Financial resources alone will not help us achieve our goals. We need to
give sanitation delivery greater priority at all spheres of government, we have
to adopt a "business as unusual approach". We must also ensure that resources
that are allocated address the backlogs in our rural areas which have the bulk
of backlogs and these communities are usually the most affected by diseases
that are caused by poor sanitation and unsafe water. Our municipalities must
give higher priority to providing services to these communities than what they
have done in the past.

The Water Services Development Plan (WSDP) and the Integrated Development
Plan (IDP) processes and documents are the tools that reflect the necessary
planning at municipal level to achieve the development priorities of
government. But, it is a great concern that in most instances these tools are
not aligned with our 2010 targets. Sanitation in particular remains a stepchild
on these development plans. Part of this shortcoming can be attributed to the
lack of appropriate and adequate human resources at municipality level. The
President in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) in February 2007, voiced
great concern on a significant number of senior management and professional
positions that remain vacant in the public service including
municipalities.

My Department, as a sector leader, has to ensure that the sanitation targets
are met and once again commit ourselves to support municipalities to achieve
the targets through close co-operation and where required, the provision of
additional human resources and support to municipalities. My Department in
consultation and partnership with other relevant departments has mobilised
engineers within the country and abroad who have the relevant skills to provide
hands on support to struggling municipalities. My Department further has
developed an accelerated delivery plan, which seeks to provide hands on support
to struggling municipalities and strengthen existing capacity. The strategy
also stresses the need to move away from conventional delivery approaches and
models to more vigorous approaches and best practice that will significantly
increase service delivery.

5. Bucket eradication

Programme Director, as I mentioned earlier, one of our upcoming targets is
the eradication of all bucket toilets in established areas by December 2007.
KwaZulu-Natal is one of the provinces that had few bucket toilets and have
already eradicated their backlogs. However in January this year there were
about 132 000 buckets being use in established areas across the country.
National, provincial and local government have all come together to contribute
resources to remove these buckets and substantial progress has already be
achieved in removing these buckets. It is very encouraging to see the
commitment demonstrated by affected municipalities who have committed
additional municipal funds, as well human resources to achieving this target.
Extensive support and efforts are directed at provinces such as the Free State,
Northern Cape and Eastern Cape where the bulk of the buckets exist. These
buckets will be replaced with appropriate technologies and depending on local
conditions such as the availability of water and difficult geological
conditions. Members of municipalities and the public should be aware that our
target to eradicate buckets by the end of this year is limited to buckets in
established areas, buckets that are still used in the informal settlements are
being addressed through human settlement programmes and are not included in
this target.

The bucket eradication programme is one of the programmes that is enjoying
considerable support from the political leadership at all levels. We must
ensure that there is similar support by political leaders at both provincial
and local government level to support the household sanitation programme.

6. Sanitation in schools and clinics

Ladies and gentlemen, a further target that we are seeking to achieve in the
near future is the provision of water and sanitation in schools and clinics.
There are still schools and clinics in our country without proper sanitation
facilities and without access to clean water and it is a priority for us to
address these backlogs. We are working very closely with the both the
Department of Education and the Department of Health on this project.

I also commend the initiatives that have been taken by the Department of
Education including the public-private partnership (PPP) that is being used by
the KwaZulu-Natal provincial Department of Education to eradicate school
sanitation backlogs, which saw the involvement of Ithala Bank, Umgeni Water and
the Department of Public Works where the first phase provided improved water
and sanitation at 334 schools, while the second phase will cater for 300
schools. This is the spirit, co-operation and determination needed to ensure
accelerated service delivery.

7. Keate's Drift Sanitation Project

Ladies and gentlemen, we are making progress in our sanitation programme and
today we celebrate our achievements here in Msinga. It makes us proud as
government to see our commitments being realised. I am pleased that the
uMzinyathi Water Services Authority in consultation with the Msinga Local
Municipality has prioritised sanitation and has taken all the steps necessary
to initiate this project for the people of Keate's Drift.

One of the important parts of our delivery of sanitation has been to ensure
that local jobs and opportunities created and indeed I am told that jobs have
been created in this project. Job creation is a priority of our government and
we encourage municipalities to use labour intensive approaches as much as
possible in our development programmes. Not only do we want to count structures
built but it is also our underlying purpose to develop skills within the local
communities and thereby reduce poverty through sustainable job creation. It is
for this reason that my Department signed a memorandum of co-operation with the
Job Creation Trust to work together to maximise job creation on all sanitation
projects. I am told that R1,3 million has been spent on this project at Keate's
Drift for wages for community labour, a big achievement indeed!

I am also pleased to note that women involvement was given attention in this
project and that women have benefited in that they have gained technical
skills. We must ensure that there is equal work for women and men in all our
development work. This equality must not only be in numbers, but also the
practical involvement of women in technical and management positions both in
community development projects as well as within the workplace. It is important
for our Water Services Authorities to remember this when they are implementing
community projects.

Our youth, who constitute a significant portion of our unemployed
population, must be part and parcel of our development programmes. I am pleased
to note again their involvement has been fully supported in this project.

Let me commend the approach taken on this project in that it not only looked
at job creation for the unemployed but it also strengthened the economic base
of the local suppliers, thus contributing to local economic development. I am
told that approximately R4 million worth of material was sourced from the local
suppliers whilst the project management was also outsourced to a company 100%
owned by historically disadvantaged individuals.

As part of this project and in line with the health and hygiene strategy
launched today, we have been providing health and hygiene education to ensure
that our families are conscious of hygiene as well as waterborne disease. My
Department realises that giving health messages such as washing of hands after
the use of a toilet is not sufficient when there is no hand washing facility to
use. We have therefore supported this community and included hand-washing
facilities as part and parcel of the water supply and sanitation
infrastructure. To coincide with the launch of the national sanitation week and
the Keate's Drift Project, my Department has organised drinking water
containers with lids with "keep water safe" messages engraved on them. This is
not part of the normal infrastructure delivery programme but a demonstration of
one of our key messages during this week. We have asked the Project Steering
Committee to ensure that all 2 950 households that benefited from this project
to receive one of these water containers.

8. Operation and maintenance

Operation and maintenance is a huge challenge for household sanitation, as
well as for schools and clinics. Whilst we are chasing our infrastructure
delivery targets we have to be very conscious of the operation and maintenance
implications of the infrastructure we use. We also need to ensure that our
water resources are not polluted by badly managed and operated sanitation
infrastructure.

The cost implications to ensure affordability, acceptability and long-term
suitability need to be addressed sufficiently. We also need to plan in advance,
for example in projects such as this one at Keate's Drift, we need to plan for
the emptying of pits when they become full.

9. Conclusion

In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, Sanitation Week is important annual
programme and we need to ensure that our messages are far reaching. In order to
extend our reach we have been co-operating with the Department of Education and
I am happy to announce that from next year health and hygiene will be taught in
our schools (from grades R to 6).

There is a great deal of work that needs to be done going forward and
without well-capacitated municipalities government will not be able to achieve
its developmental objectives of a better life for all. We are all aware of the
huge demands on local government and the human resource constraints many of
them face. As I mentioned earlier national and provincial government are
providing support to municipalities but there are also resources available
close by that can also be used. For example Tugela Water Board, which can be
used for water services provision. DWAF has made an investment of around R30
million to establish this entity and I would like to encourage municipalities
to utilise it and use this resource. I have also noted that other parts of
KwaZulu-Natal do make use of water boards as water services providers and I
would also like to encourage other Water Services Authorities to pursue and tap
into these resources, particularly for drinking water quality management. Water
boards have proven to excel in this area as well as in the operation and
maintenance of the treatment plants.

Before ending I would like to report that since the visit by my predecessor
Minister Sonjica to Muden almost two years ago there has been some progress
regarding the community's request for a small dam for livestock. The Muden
region is in the process of establishing a Water User Association in the area
and has taken up the request for a dam with the Department of Agriculture. This
process is continuing and local community structures will be kept informed of
developments.

For us in the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry there is a great deal
of work to be done to ensure that everyone has access to basic sanitation
services by 2010. Targets are set and ours is to direct our focus and efforts
on how we are going to realise the targets. We must, however, ensure whilst we
are rolling out the infrastructure programme, we do not compromise on
sustainable job creation, women and youth involvement, and long-term
sustainability of our infrastructure.

Sanitation Week starts today until Friday, 30 March and I am inviting all
South Africans particularly this week to practising good sanitation i.e. wash
your hands with water and soap after visiting the toilet and before food
preparation. Let us all work together to accelerate sanitation delivery to
those who are un-served.

"Sanitation for health and dignity."

I thank you!

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