L Hendricks: Discussion on eradication of bucket sanitation
systems

13 July 2007

My colleague, honourable Minister Mufamadi
MECs of Local Government and Housing
Mayors and councillors
Municipal managers
Government officials and sector partners
Programme Director
Ladies and gentlemen

1. Introduction

I am pleased to be part of this special and important gathering here today.
I am once again encouraged to be engaging with senior provincial and local
government decision makers as well as senior officials from the sector
departments and service delivery facilitators in our drive to eradicate buckets
from formal established areas.

The representatives of the Free Sate, Eastern Cape and North West present
here toady will recall our recent engagements where we held bucket eradication
focused summits. These provinces were earmarked due to the magnitude of the
backlog in their province and the summits were based on the same objectives of
this gathering here today.

2. Bucket eradication summits

The purpose of these special bucket eradication summits were not just to
hold talk shows, but 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. Action plans were developed and are being implemented by
the affected provinces. Much as my Department have had long-standing good
relations with municipalities, I have noted that these summits have opened
doors and strengthened effective collaboration between municipalities,
provincial governments and my regional offices. For example in the Eastern
Cape, the Premier's Co-ordinating Forum, in collaboration with the Department
of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) Regional Manager, has established an
intervention task team responsible for ensuring co-ordinated support to
municipalities.

And in the Free State, which constitutes the largest backlog, I am proud to
announce that after the summit they now exists a much stronger relationship
between the provincial, local governments and my regional office. I must
commend the province for "walking the talk" following the "pledge of
commitment”" that we signed during the bucket eradication summit held in
October 2006. The MEC has played a remarkable role in giving strategic
direction, leadership and is committed to make the programme a success. The
province has launched a bucket eradication strategy and has an accelerated
delivery plan specific to buckets and a bucket eradication communication
strategy in place.

I have noted at the provincial summits the importance of participation by
all spheres of government and I am again pleased to see here today that MECs,
mayors, councillors and relevant senior officials as well as other stakeholders
are present and are making water and sanitation services their business. We all
have designated roles and specific powers in the value chain of water and
sanitation services and we are therefore accountable to deliver these services.
What is important is for us to recognise how our different responsibilities in
this sector can be brought together in an integrated way, so that we are able
to make a meaningful impact in delivery of services. I believe that the water
sector has made great strides in intergovernmental relations and we should be
able to share our experiences with other sectors.

3. Achieving the targets

Programme Director, this gathering could not have come at a better time as
we are left with just five months to achieve the targets and we need to move
with speed, I see today as a national "summit" where we engage with all
provinces and are able to share lessons, collectively discuss and agree on
solutions for issues of a similar nature. In addition, I see reinforcement of
earlier discussions held during the provincial bucket eradication summits as it
is important that we do not re-invent the wheel today but move forward on the
basis of these earlier discussions. Today also affords us with an opportunity
to review progress made, discuss the challenges and identify where
interventions and support are required.

As we engage in discussions today we must appreciate the urgency required
and the need to embark on a "business unusual" approach. The President and
Cabinet have strongly emphasised the need to achieve the targets and deliver
basic services to our people.

The latest figures that I have received are that there are about 109 000
households in established formal settlements still subjected to the bucket
sanitation system. The Free State continues to retain the largest sum of
buckets (74%), followed by the Eastern Cape (16%), whilst the remainder of the
backlog is shared between the Northern Cape (6%), the North West (3%) and
finally the Western Cape (1%). I am also informed that more than half of the
backlog in the Free State is in the construction phase, whereas the entire
backlog in the North West and Western Cape are in the design/tender phase. A
national view indicates that 60% of buckets are in the construction phase and
40% of buckets are in the design/tender phases. Clearly there is still a great
deal of work to be done before the end of the year.

As there are other significant development projects underway such as the
2010 FIFA World Cup, housing delivery as well as the other water and sanitation
targets we must appreciate the tremendous pressure and competition on the
limited resources across the delivery chain.

In response to these and other challenges my Department had deployed 21
engineers with technical expertise to support bucket eradication by
municipalities. Since then a further 10 engineers have been deployed to the
Free State municipalities as an extension to the seven already deployed under
this support initiative. These engineers are a resource to support you and I
therefore urge municipalities to maximise the use of these skills, as they are
able to provide hands on support in all phases of the project cycle. The
contact person for this resource is Ms Tamie Mpotulo, the National Sanitation
Programme Manager based at our national office in Pretoria.

4. Challenges

Ladies and gentlemen, during the provincial summits a number of challenges
and areas of concerned were raised. If we are to achieve the targets then it is
imperative that we deal with these challenges. I would briefly like to discuss
some of these challenges as I feel they are relevant for today's
discussions.

Firstly, the issue of what is being targeted and the actual backlog of
buckets in established formal settlements. It has been brought to my attention
that housing delivery programmes and informal settlements have been earmarked
though this programme. As much as buckets are not an acceptable service
wherever they exists, we need to prioritise the qualifying buckets.

Secondly, procurement challenges have been raised as a bottleneck. Such
challenges can be resolved locally but relies on the "business as unusual
approach" referred to earlier. While I am not advocating flouting of
procurement regulations we are all aware that improvements can be made to
supply chain management policies within municipalities and arrangements can be
made to have additional or ad hoc sittings of council and tender committees.
Such measures would pave the way for speedy implementation of the
infrastructure programmes.

Thirdly, there is the challenge of by in. We need to recognise that
sanitation delivery constitutes both the physical infrastructure delivery as
well as social issues. To overcome this challenge we need to communicate, there
needs to be constant communication amongst officials and politicians, political
ownership by councillors and communication with communities about the different
technological options. One of the social issues that should not be ignored is
health and hygiene education for communities. Environmental health officers
need to be brought on board in all water services projects to ensure
effectiveness and suitability of the services that we provide.

Fourthly, is the skills challenge and I have spoke earlier about DWAF
support but I believe and have stated in previous summits that the possibility
should exist for secondments to take place between municipalities. Such a
proposal requires a mind shift and councils taking a view that we are not too
proud to accept assistance from those that have been successful in eliminating
the backlog so that we can ensure all of our people receive access to basic
services.

Fifthly, the issue of finance is always raised as a key challenge. As I have
mentioned in previous summits the solution is not always 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 still doubt that any municipality would have sent back
unspent Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) funding. When we do not spend
existing MIG funds and do not have effective and efficient financial management
systems in place, then National Treasury will remain hesitant to allocate
additional funds to such municipalities. Further, where shortfalls have been
experienced MIG should not be seen as the only source of funding. We commend
those municipalities that have explored other funding streams for example the
Provincial Infrastructure Grant (PIG), municipal own funds or loans from
Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA). I encourage those present here today
to start looking at these options and I am sure there are lessons we can share
on such matters. It might be necessary for us to have a session on why it is
viable to use loan finance to provide the funding shortfall for these basic
services, if we support the view that provision of water and sanitation is a
prerequisite for and closely linked to sustainable economic growth then we will
achieve a significant return on such loans, as they are an investment in our
communities.

The last challenge I would like to raise is the demand for water-borne
sanitation systems and the rejection of technology options such as Ventilated
Improved Pit-latrine (VIP). Communication and the use of appropriate
communication methods become critical in addressing this challenge. Some
municipalities present here today are faced with this challenge whilst others
have control over the situation. We again hope to share lessons on appropriate
technology options that could be effectively used some might allow for
upgrading from VIPs to water borne at a latter stage, others might be a French
drain or a urine diversion and compositing of the waste. The Ukhahlamba
District Municipality in the Eastern Cape successfully installed an interim
solution whilst bulk infrastructure is planned for the future to allow water
borne systems. This has been effectively communicated with the beneficiaries.
Any solution however must be based on clear feasibility studies to ensure its
appropriateness and sustainability. My Department is ready to assist with
technical expertise around this matter and alternative technology options.

5. Conclusion

To conclude, in our quest to achieve the targets we must not lose sight of
the other important objectives of government and ensure Local Economic
Development (LED) and the creation of sustainable jobs for the unemployed, we
must use these initiatives to create a better life for our people by targeting
the poor, women, youth and the disabled.

I encourage you all to actively participate in this working session so that
we can move towards more effective and efficient action plans. Let us all take
note of the different roles we play in the delivery chain, identify the
bottlenecks we are facing and see how they can be resolved to make this
programme a success.

Finally, I am pleased to hold hands with my colleague, the honourable
Minister Mufamadi in our shared responsibility towards meeting these
targets.

I thank you!

Issued by: Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
13 July 2007