L Hendricks: Women in Water, Sanitation and Forestry Awards 2006

10 August 2006

Ambassadors
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee
CEO of Eskom
CEO of Lepelle Water Board
Finalists
Members of the adjudication panel
Programme Director
Honourable guests
Ladies and gentlemen

Introduction

It is an honour to be here this evening to celebrate and recognise South
African women for the work that they have done in the water, sanitation and
forestry sectors. Our awards this year coincide with the 50th anniversary of
the historic women’s march to the Union Buildings. In that 1956 march we saw
the power of women working as a collective to try and bring about change. South
Africa has had many great women who have dedicated their lives and energy to
making a difference in this country; women leaders such as Lilian Ngoyi, Amina
Kathrada, Helen Joseph, Frances Baard, Ruth First, and Ellen Kuzwayo; to name
but a few of our women leaders who have inspired many to follow in their
footsteps.

The call to this women’s month has been to recognise that while we have
attained democracy there is still a great deal that needs to be done in South
Africa until women are truly equal. The Deputy President in her address at the
launch of the Progressive Women’s Movement over the weekend said in her keynote
address that: “The full emancipation of women is a pre-condition for a
successful democracy in South Africa and the World.” And the President in his
address to the gathering of over 15 000 women at the women’s march held two
days ago recognised our democracy has not successfully been able to remove all
of the obstacles that stand in the way of women becoming truly emancipated.

We understand these obstacles and disparities arise because of ideological,
political, economic and cultural systems that unfortunately still favour men
and boys at the expense of women and girls. We see this gender bias around us
every day despite our country having a remarkably progressive and
anti-discriminatory Constitution.

These gender disparities affect the achievement of human rights, the
distribution of resources and economic opportunities, the division of work, and
the ability to participate in decision-making. It is therefore necessary for us
as women to ensure we lead the drive to remove the legal and non-legal barriers
to women’s empowerment and gender equality. We are therefore required to be
activists for women empowerment in every area of our lives.

Women in government

Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to say that since 1994 the South African
government has taken the issue of gender and empowerment of women to heart, not
only at the policy level but also in areas of legislation, election of
political representatives, and appointment of officials in government. For
example, in my department, the top management consists mainly of women where 75
percent of the Deputy Director-General posts are occupied by women – strong,
committed, and dedicated women who are focused on achieving the goals that have
been set by government.

Furthermore, our Parliament has the 12th largest proportion of women
representatives in the world. We have ratified important international
agreements to support women such as the “Convention to Eliminate Discrimination
Against Women”. We have women as the speakers of both houses of parliament, and
we have over 40 percent women Ministers and Deputy Ministers, who lead powerful
government departments.

Women in water

Programme director, greater representation of women in politics and as
government officials definitely has an impact on the programmes run by
government and its social policies. The contribution made by the government
over the past twelve years to uplifting poor people and women has been
significant.

An area that is critical to the upliftment and empowerment of women is the
provision of clean water and sanitation. Many poor households which do not have
access to such services are headed by women, particularly in the rural areas.
To enable our people to live in dignity and well-being we must become activists
in this sector. We must reaffirm our commitment not only to the delivery of
water, sanitation and forestry services, but to ensuring that we mainstream
gender to ensure that women can also benefit from the development opportunities
that arise when we provide such services.

In the international water sector and in Africa in particular, we have had
our own targets and challenges to meet with regard to women and water. In the
run-up to the Second World Water Forum that was held in The Hague in 2000, the
water sector in Africa developed the African Water Vision 2025, which committed
us amongst other things, to mainstreaming our water policies by 2015. South
Africa can be proud that we had already achieved this target in 1997.

As women represent the great majority of the poor in Africa, achieving
poverty eradication and women empowerment requires that women have access to
the necessary resources, with water being a critical resource for rural
households and small-scale farmers. Female farmers are as productive as their
male counterparts, but a higher proportion of female income is spent on family
well-being, relative to male income. Empowering women and ensuring their access
to resources is therefore good for the family, and good for the nation. The
United Nations have shown that poverty eradication and gender equality are
closely entwined; and in their 1995 Human Development Report stated that "human
development, if not engendered, is endangered".

Ladies and gentlemen, in South Africa through the National Water Act we
require that suitable institutions be formed, which must incorporate the
appropriate community, racial and gender representation. To achieve this
institutional reform my department is overseeing the establishment of Catchment
Management Agencies, and Water User Associations; as well as job creation
projects in water and sanitation services. Already, the Inkomati, the Breede,
the Mvoti to uMzimkulu, and the Crocodile West and Marico Catchment Management
Agencies have been officially established and launched, and the Inkomati
Governing Board has excellent gender representation, and is chaired by a
strong, dedicated and powerful woman. I have great trust in how she will lead
this nascent organisation to serve the needs of our people. The Nzhelele, the
Mutale, the Mutshimbwe and the Nkonzo Irrigation Boards have been successfully
transformed into Water User Associations.

However it is not enough that we transform these institutions alone, we must
ensure that there is alignment of this institutional reform with the Water
Allocation Reform (WAR) programme, so that women have both access to water and
representation on the relevant water structures and institutions.

For those who are not aware, the Water Allocation Reform programme aims to
redistribute raw water in South Africa, so that we overcome the historical
legacy of apartheid water allocations, so that black women and men can have
equitable access to water for productive purposes. In this programme we are
engaging with women across the country to address issues such as land tenure,
water rights and access to resources.

Sanitation

Ladies and gentlemen, access to basic sanitation, especially among our rural
poor, remains a major challenge. Currently, it is estimated that 15,3 million
people do not have access to basic sanitation services. We cannot ignore the
appalling negative impact that lack of access to these basic services has on
human life, particularly on the vulnerable, such as children, the elderly, the
sick, the disabled, and those living with HIV and AIDS. This is truly a matter
of life and death. And it is women who must find ways to access water and
sanitation facilities, to care for those who are unable to do so
themselves.

To address these challenges our government has set national targets that aim
to replace the bucket system in established areas by December 2007, and
eradicate the sanitation backlog by 2010.

The sector is however faced with huge delivery challenges which include how
to stretch limited financial and human resources. An urgent need to speed up
delivery is high on the political agenda so that we are geared up to ensuring
accelerated sanitation delivery.

Women in forestry

Programme director, we are also gearing up for forestry to make a major
contribution to growth and development through the facilitation of small
growers into the mainstream forestry sector, as well as the facilitation of new
afforestation especially in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. The growing of
trees in these areas will add to the economy, as well as provide employment and
entrepreneurial opportunities to the local people, especially women. These
processes are ongoing, emphasising the fact that without women playing
meaningful roles in resource allocation and access, the system of skewed
distribution will remain unchallenged, leaving us with an untransformed
sector.

To support transformation of forestry my department has been engaging with
industry players in the development of the Forestry Sector Broad-Based Black
Economic Empowerment Charter. We have ensured that women’s voices are heard and
we have gathered many inputs from women by amongst other things holding
workshops with rural women to discuss forestry issues with them. One of the
outcomes of these workshops was that they do not want some kind of special
treatment, they simply want economic and development opportunities to be made
available to them.

Some of their other requests focused on the need for women to be organised
in the sector including the establishment of co-operatives for small-scale
operators; the need for physical safety and hygiene facilities to be urgently
addressed; the need for ensuring appropriate working and living conditions; the
need for training and capacity building; and – not least of all – the need for
land.

The awards

Honourable guests, transformation of our society is not the responsibility
of government alone, we need the intervention and support of all of you, as
partners – so that we can realise those demands of the women who marched so
many years before. The awards we are holding tonight are to honour but a few of
the many women in South Africa who are making a difference through their
activism – role models for the rest of us to look up to.

It was in order to recognise the role that women have played and continue to
play that the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, the Water Research
Commission and the Water Institute of South Africa jointly developed the Women
in Water Awards, some five years ago. And as you are aware, we have now
expanded the focus to the sanitation and forestry sectors.

Tonight we are celebrating the hard work of women, often in the face of
tough battles to be recognised professionally in very male-dominated sectors.
It is pleasing to note that, even though not sufficient, the roles that women
are playing in the sanitation and forestry are slowly shifting from the
traditional “soft” positions such as administrative support to assuming the
very critical roles as service providers, decision–makers, managers of
infrastructure delivery programmes and becoming involved in construction.

I am excited that I will shortly announce the winners and present the Awards
to those women who have played a leading role in the following categories:

* management and policy
* research
* education and awareness
* community development.

I congratulate all the women who were nominated for the Awards, and let me
encourage those who have not yet been nominated but who are out there, doing
remarkable things, shaping the face of our country. I am proud of all our
finalists for having made it to this stage of the awards process. Through your
commitment and dedication, our water, sanitation and forestry sectors are
stronger than ever before.

In recognising the achievements of these women tonight, we will be honouring
the victories and contributions of all women who have broken through society’s
stereotyping and have gone on to achieve success – not only as individuals but
also for their communities and families.

The high-level representation we have here tonight, from government and
other sectors, is testimony to the active participation of women in all spheres
of life. The brief profiles of our finalists epitomise the contributions of
women. They are powerful, outspoken, committed, compassionate women who have
taken the daily struggles of our people to a level of practical solutions.

Conclusion

To conclude, ladies and gentlemen, programme director, the water and
forestry industry is still very much male-dominated, and we need to show that
there is place for women at all levels of these industries. We also recognise
the skills gap and the necessity of women from historically disadvantaged
communities going into in the engineering, research and scientific fields - in
line with the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) programme
of government.

In raising awareness about the Awards, we held workshops across the country,
and we have noted the call for a women’s conference as well as an organisation
for women in these sectors to take up the many challenges that we know exist. I
support this call and will see how we as the Department of Water Affairs and
Forestry can support the establishment of such an organisation and the holding
of a conference.

I hope that you will all leave here inspired to take forward women
empowerment more strongly so women take their rightful place in society, and
contribute to building a better life for all and creating an age of hope.

Finally, I must thank the organisers for the work they have put into making
this evening a success; and a special thank you must also go to the members of
the adjudication panel for giving of their valuable time and knowledge to
assist us in this process. Thanks to our main sponsor, Eskom, for their
continued contribution and commitment towards making this a glowing occasion,
and to Lepelle Water Board and the Centre for Public Service Innovation for
their support.

I hope all of you enjoy this evening of celebration with us.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
10 August 2006