L Hendricks: North West Sanitation summit

14 May 2007

Premier
MEC for Local Government and Housing
Members of the Provincial Executive Council
Members of the Provincial Legislature
Mayors and councillors
Magosi a rona (our traditional leaders)
Government officials and sector partners
Programme Director

Dumelang

I am pleased to be in the North West province today to engage with the
provincial and local leadership, senior officials and everybody present in this
summit to discuss the acceleration plan of service delivery, and how we are
going to achieve the targets which have been set by the government.

We should all be acutely aware of the problems of the bucket system, the
health and social risks of not having Reconstruction and Development Programme
(RDP) levels of sanitation, and the problems of not having access to potable
water. Equally, all of us should be aware of the improvements to people's
lives, and the contribution to poverty eradication and economic growth that is
created by access to these basic services. It is therefore not necessary for me
to go into too much detail on these issues. Rather I am here today to show the
importance of collaboration between the different spheres of government in
achieving these critical targets.

All of us, from the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, to the MEC for
Local Government, mayors, councillors, local and national officials; are part
of the water value chain, and we are all responsible for the water and
sanitation business. If it comes to rolling up their sleeves and building
toilets, so be it; we cannot afford to disappoint our people who waited years
for basic services. It is us, the political leadership and senior managers in
government who will need to account if we do not meet these targets, which are
about improving the lives of our people and creating a better life for all. We
are left with six months to meet the bucket eradication target, with the
targets of access to water and sanitation for all following closely in 2008 and
2010 respectively, so we cannot afford to relax or allow a 'business as usual'
approach. The President and Cabinet are placing great emphasis on us achieving
our targets, and I have been mandated to drive the acceleration plan for the
water and sanitation targets.

This 'business unusual' approach has seen me visiting the Free State and
Eastern Cape provinces where similar Provincial Sanitation summits were held.
The purpose of those summits, like this one, was firstly to strengthen
intergovernmental relations as an enabler of integrated service delivery; and
secondly as an opportunity for political leaders and senior government
officials to commit ourselves to ensuring that the targets are met. And in the
Free State we signed a pledge of commitment.

These summits have greatly contributed towards us being in a position where
we will either be able to meet the targets in each of the municipalities of
these provinces or enabled us to identify where the problem areas or
bottlenecks are, so the necessary interventions can be made.

At a practical level these summits have greatly improved the co-operation
between the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) and provincial
government as well as local government. For example, we are seeing the DWAF
Regional managers giving reports to the MEC for Local Government, and
participating in the Premier's Co-ordinating Forum and provincial Social
Cluster. I am pleased to hear that a good working relationship exists in North
West between the MEC and my department's regional staff and I would like to
thank you for the access and direct communication that my officials have with
the Premier and the MEC for Provincial and Local Government and Housing. This
summit allows us to strengthen this relationship and if there are any areas for
improvement today is a good opportunity to raise them.

These summits also enable us to better understand the challenges experienced
by municipalities as well as share information about what other provinces and
municipalities are doing. For example in the Eastern Cape, the Premier's
Co-ordinating Forum in collaboration with the DWAF Regional Manager has
established an intervention Task Team responsible for ensuring co-ordinated
support to municipalities.

Premier, in dealing with these other provinces and municipalities across the
country we have been able to identify some of the factors that have contributed
to their success and it is possible to apply these lessons to other areas and
other programmes. The success factors can be summarised as follows:

* clear political directive with clear time frames
* dedicated ring-fenced funding for the programme
* continuous communication to communities
* dedicated hands on support by my department through mobilised capacity
* programme management approach.

These summits are not about long speeches, I have personally intervened on
the agenda for each of the summits so that it is not a series of long speeches.
The theme is "action" and municipalities are expected to present their state of
readiness to meet the targets; with bucket eradication, and provision of water
and sanitation to clinics being the priority.

The expected outcome of this summit is a realistic plan of action which
indicates the challenges, how and when will they be solved and responsible
organisation, as well as the delivery rate per month. A monthly report is
expected from each municipality which will be consolidated into a provincial
report to be submitted to the Premier and myself. This, ladies and gentlemen,
means "Business Unusual".

In January this year my department, through the Social Cluster, submitted a
Service Delivery Acceleration Plan to the Cabinet Lekgotla. This plan, which
received the blessing of the Cabinet, is being implemented. The plan is focused
on intensifying the good things that we are currently doing, i.e. innovation;
urgency in our approach; and importantly, strengthening of collaboration
between all spheres of government. The strategic interventions that we outlined
in this plan are:

* hands-on leadership and support by my department as sector leader
* hands-on political support and involvement at all spheres of government
* mobilisation of both human and financial resources to address skills
gap
* unblocking "bottlenecks" affecting service delivery
* strengthening intergovernmental co-operation.

As government if we are going to accelerate or fast tracking delivery we
need to have new and different ways of doing things, and this requires a
commitment for more urgent engagement with how we deliver our services. This
acceleration may require a review of supply chain management policies, ad hoc
sittings of meetings of council tender committees that would pave the way for
speedy implementation of the infrastructure programmes, constant communication
amongst officials and politicians, political ownership by councillors,
communication with communities about the different technological options, and
if necessary secondments between municipalities.

For example, we have been informed that the buckets have been eradicated in
Maquasi Hills and the potential exists for us to second officials from that
municipality or others that have eradicated backlogs, to municipalities that
are experiencing challenges. There is also the potential to have secondments
from other provinces or secondments of officials from my department to those
municipalities that indicate they will not be able to meet the backlog.

Support to accelerate delivery can also be provided by my department's
public entities, particularly the Water Boards. During our departmental
Strategic Planning Session held earlier this year DWAF entities were requested
to align their strategic plans to ours to ensure that they strengthen our
capacity to achieve government goals. Representatives from water boards have
been invited to do a presentation today on how they can support the
municipalities in accelerating service delivery.

Premier, MEC, I have no doubt that in most of the municipalities the issue
of finances will be raised as a key constraint to implementation. Whilst I
agree that more funding may be required, the solution is not to just throw
money at the problem and hope that we have toilets by the end of the year. If
funds were the only problem I doubt that any municipality would have sent back
unspent Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) funding, whereas we find that a
great deal of MIG money has not been spent; so in our discussions today we need
to go deeper and talk about the real constraints.

If funds are short and more money is required then I will need to go to my
colleagues in Cabinet, the ministers of Provincial and Local Government and
Finance with a plan to show how existing funds have been cost effectively
utilised, that there are workable plans in place to address the backlog, and
there is political commitment from all spheres of government to eradicating
buckets and those commitments have be translated into practical measures.

National Treasury will not allocate funding to municipalities that cannot
illustrate that they have a well thought business plan that shows how issues of
technical expertise, procurement procedures, decision making in council,
programme management and financial management have been addressed. These are
areas where my department is able to come in and provide support together with
other relevant departments including the National Treasury in the province.

In our commitment to addressing the backlog, we as politicians may have to
make hard decisions. I am aware of the difficulties in this province around
technology options such as Ventilated Improved Pit-latrine (VIP) that seem
unacceptable to communities. It is very important that our communities should
be educated and made aware that it is not always possible to provide water
borne sanitation. Whilst some might see it as an ideal to replace each bucket
toilet with water flush system, it is important for a municipality to look at
issues of sustainable water resources, availability of bulk infrastructure,
treatment of wastewater, and very importantly, affordability. There are,
however, appropriate technology options that could be effectively used; some
might allow for upgrading from VIPs to waterborne at a latter stage, others
might be a french drain, or a urine diversion and composting of the waste. My
department is also able to offer advice and support on the different options
and technologies available. The type of technology we propose to communities
could make the difference between us meeting the targets or not meeting the
targets.

In the process of speeding up access to services, we must not lose sight of
the other important objectives of government, particularly job creation and
women empowerment. We have shown that is possible to create local jobs for both
men and women through the implementation of our water and sanitation
programmes.

Before concluding Premier, I would like to recognise the achievements in
your province. Amongst them, I would like to mention the development of the
Provincial Sector Plan which responds to the key challenges related to water,
sanitation and forestry, its integration into the Provincial Growth and
Development Strategy, and the establishment of a working group focusing on
infrastructure development.

I also wish to acknowledge the financial support option that has been
provided by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) to certain
municipalities and the co-operation of all relevant stakeholders in the
existing provincial Task Team to ensure that this initiative is well managed
and municipalities are adequately supported.

To conclude, Programme Director, there are pressing demands before us. There
are only a few months before the target on bucket eradication must be met, and
shortly after that we will have the target for access to water; and by 2010 we
are targeting universal access to sanitation.

Co-operation is a key ingredient for us to achieve the targets and it is
through a spirit of collaboration and co-operative governance that significant
progress has been attained. And today we see national, provincial and local
government, as well as water sector stakeholders coming together to forge
strategies to meet the challenges that we face. It is my hope that with our
collective efforts our deliberations today will be fruitful and we will find
immediate solutions to some of our challenges. Premier, I am here to work, "Let
there be water and sanitation for all!"

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
4 May 2007