L Hendricks: Rural Splash Programme launch

20 March 2007

Programme Director
President of Swimming South Africa
Inkosi Ngubane
Distinguished guests
Maphumulo Community
Ladies and gentlemen

It is an honour to be here in Maphumulo to celebrate Water Week with you.
During this week we are holding events all over South Africa to make people
aware of the importance of water to our country. Yesterday, I was in Limpopo
where we were launching a new dam that is going to be constructed in
Sekhukhune; when it is built the dam will provide water to over 800 000 people
who currently do not have adequate access to water. The water from the dam will
also be used by the mines in that area and will create jobs.

Water is an important part of economic growth and in creating a better life
for our people. Since 1994 our government has made a lot of progress in
bringing water to people, and by 2008, we are targeting that everyone in our
country will have access to water, so that we are able to address this basic
human right. And as we celebrate Human Rights Day tomorrow, we should recognise
how much we have achieved since 1994 in empowering our people and in addressing
their basic human rights by giving them access to water, housing, education,
and more. However we still have much that needs to be done and we cannot relax
until we have addressed the poverty that exists in our country.

National Water Week

Programme Director, our theme for this year's Water Week is "Water is life,
protect our scarce resources." We have chosen this theme to make people aware
of the importance of water but to recognise that there is a limited amount of
water available in our country and that we need to conserve and protect it.
Because of economic development, growth in the population and the urgent need
to supply basic water services to millions of people there has been an
increasing demand for water, and it is therefore necessary that we take steps
to make sure that there is some water for all of us.

With its low rainfall, compared to most other countries in the world, South
Africa is regarded as a dry country. We have less rain per year when compared
with the international average and because it gets very hot in our country we
lose a lot of water through evaporation. This year the hot weather and low
rainfall means that we have parts of the country that are experiencing a
drought. This drought has impacted on the grazing for animals, crops failing
and for many communities will mean less food on their tables. We should
therefore not take the water we have available for granted.

Swimming safety

Ladies and gentlemen, National Water Week is not only about the water
available for drinking or using for irrigation and industry, but also about
enjoying our water for recreational and other purposes. There is something
special about swimming in cool water on a hot day or going fishing in the dam
or river. There are also many who use water for religious reasons. However, in
using our water resources, we must be mindful of the dangers of water
especially if we do not take care or we do not know how to swim. Unfortunately
because of our past it is mainly black South Africans that are not taught how
to swim and as a result an estimated 94% of those who have drowned are black
people.

A few months ago my department entered into a partnership with Swimming
South Africa to address the problem; and as a result of this partnership we
have launched the Rural Splash Programme, so that people in rural communities
are taught how to swim and enable them to enjoy and be safe when using our
water resources.

In the weeks prior to the launch of this partnership we were saddened by the
loss of life when one of the dams in the Free State released water into the
river, and the group of people who were holding a religious ceremony in the
river did not understand the warning signs and were swept away and drowned.
Since then we have, in partnership with local government, traditional leaders
and other structures, created greater awareness on the safe use of water.

Too often we are reminded of the urgency of our work in training and
educating people especially the youth in how to swim and use water safely, and
the need to rapidly roll out this 'rural splash' programme by the drowning that
regularly occur in our dams and rivers. Only this weekend three lives were lost
in the Nandoni Dam and a few weeks ago two ten year old girls drowned in the
Brandvlei Dam. Over the December holidays there were many other drowning
incidents.

Many of these drownings could have been prevented had these children known
how to swim and how to avoid some of the possible dangers when crossing
streams, swimming and other recreational activities. It is therefore of
critical importance that we as parents encourage our children to learn how to
swim through this rural splash programme, but also for us to teach them about
the need to respect water and understand the possible dangers associated with
rivers and dams.

Ladies and gentlemen, my department is committed to increasing its
involvement with water safety awareness issues and thereby comply with the
requirements of the National Water Act, in which we have a regulatory
responsibility to make water resource safety information available. This
information will be made available through a media campaign and will be linked
to the Rural Splash Programme. My department's own communication plan
emphasises strengthening the department's engagement with the public, including
use of water for recreational purposes.

To ensure that all of our people are able to have access and to safely enjoy
our natural resources, my department has also developed a Policy for
Recreational Water Use.

In co-operation with relevant Stakeholders, we aim to:

* regulate, control and manage the manner, purpose and extent to which water
resources are used
* ensure that industry norms and standards are adhered to
* promote the safe use of water
* establish linkages with other structures in government, to jointly manage the
responsibility for the sustainable management and use of water resources for
recreational purposes
* ensure stakeholder and role-player empowerment, with regard to recreational
water use through sufficient communication and capacity building.

In conclusion, programme director, while we must respect our water resources
we cannot pretend that they do not exist and become fearful of them. Human
Rights Day is also about recognising that our people be given the opportunity
to benefit from what our country has to offer include recreational use of our
water resources. These resources are not there only for the wealthy to
enjoy.

While we are promoting the enjoyment and benefits of our water resources it
is necessary that we also look after these resources, and during this week my
department will be working with several municipalities to have river cleaning
campaigns. We will also be creating awareness of water issues during this week
through drama, poetry and music, as well as by taking school children on tours
of water treatment plants and teaching them how to test the quality of
water.

Lastly, I would like to thank everyone for their contribution to making
today's programme a success, particularly Inkosi Ngubane, the Maphumulo
community, Swimming South Africa and all the other stakeholders and
role-players. I would also like to thank the officials of my department who,
along with Swimming South Africa, have driven the programme with a lot of
passion and hard work.

"Be safe, learn to swim."

I thank you.

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