Forestry, on Budget Vote Debate 2007/08, at the National Council of Provinces
(NCOP), Cape Town
24 May 2007
Honourable Chairperson of the NCOP
Premiers here present
Honourable members
Members of the Executive Councils (ExCo) here present
Ladies and gentlemen
1. Introduction
I stand before you today in my first policy review debate in the NCOP as the
Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry.
Over the past 12 months that I have been Minister of Water Affairs and
Forestry, my Department has accomplished a great deal in creating a better life
for our people.
2. Highlights from 2006/07 and projects for 2007/08
Some of the highlights over the past year and plans for this year
include:
* Last year 1,2 million people received access to basic water contributing
to our target of eradicating the backlog of people without access to water by
2008 and an additional 250 000 households received access to basic sanitation.
We plan to intensify our efforts this year to achieve a greater impact.
* 74 000 buckets were eradicated during the past year, with the remaining
buckets in the formal established settlements set to be eradicated by the end
of this year. I reported to the National Assembly last week that we have 106
000 buckets remaining in these settlements and that I have held sanitation
summits in those provinces most affected by the bucket system they are the Free
State, Eastern Cape and North West provinces and I would like to thank the
premiers of all three provinces for their presence at these summits and the
commitment shown by them, their MECs and mayors to eradicating buckets. We look
forward to these buckets being eradicated by our target date of December
2007.
* 76% of households benefiting from free basic water. Some areas have
experienced problems with free basic services and we have seen a proactive
response by Mpumalanga which has programmes involving communities to address
the operations and maintenance problems that negatively affect free basic water
provisioning.
* During the past year we have also embarked on an extensive process of
water use verification in a number of catchments in each province. As you know,
illegal water use is a threat to our allocation programme. Our Free State
office has developed a fully functional enforcement and compliance unit to deal
with people who steal our water.
* In the Limpopo province we have started work on the De Hoop Dam, which
will ultimately bring water to 800 000 people and unlock the mining potential
in that region.
* The Limpopo province will also see the completion of the water treatment
works for the Nandoni Dam, which at a cost of R389 million will see over 700
000 people being given access to water with many more people benefiting in the
future from our plans to extend this project. This project is due for
completion during this financial year.
* We are supporting the planned power station in Lephalale in Limpopo and
this financial year we will be completing the feasibility study for the
pipeline to take water to the power station.
* In Mpumalanga our plans to support electricity generation and the liquid
fuels industry will see the completion of the Vaal Augmentation pipeline during
this financial year.
* The Injaka water purification and distribution works as well as the
pipeline that will take water for domestic use to the rural villages of
Ackornhoek in Mpumalanga will also be completed during this financial year.
* Work on the Berg River Dam in the Western Cape has been ongoing and the
project which will increase the water availability for the Western Cape, will
be completed during this financial year.
* In KwaZulu-Natal the Hluhluwe regional water works will almost be
completed by the end of this financial year. This project will be providing
rural communities in Northern KwaZulu-Natal with water for domestic use.
* In the Northern Cape province we have a R22 million water pipeline that we
are constructing from the Orange River to Colesberg.
* In Gauteng we are rehabilitating the Vlakfontein Canal, as part of the
Usutu Vaal Scheme and will be rehabilitating and refurbishing our water and
waste water treatment works in the Vaal River system, amongst others.
* Draft regulations for support to resource poor farmers were published and
we should start to increase our support to these farmers during this financial
year. Already we have supplied rain water harvesting tanks to these farmers and
have plans to extend this programme with a further 200 rain water tanks this
year in Limpopo, Free State and Eastern Cape and a 1 000 of the smaller 'Jojo'
water tanks in Thaba Nchu in the Free State.
* The North West province will be installing early warning systems in the
ground water aquifers in the Vryberg area so that we are able to detect levels
of groundwater and thereby make better use of this water source.
* During the past year we also raised our profile in the international
community and hosted an international conference on earth observation
technology for use in obtaining water related information. Department of Water
Affairs and Forestry officials have also presented papers at international
conferences. South Africa is increasingly seen as a leading light in addressing
the pressing water and sanitation challenges faced by the poor and by people
living in rural areas, a view which was supported during the launch of the 2006
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) human development report (held in
the Western Cape). During this financial year we will be hosting two
international events, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation (UNESCO) symposium on hydrological issues in November 2007
(Gauteng) and the second, which I am pleased to announce today is the African
San Conference; this conference will be held in KwaZulu-Natal in February 2008
and will see the attendance of African Ministers to discuss critical issues on
sanitation. We have also agreed to participate in the 'water and sustainable
development' exhibition to be held in Zaragoza, Spain during 2008.
* African co-operation has also remained very high on our agenda during the
past year. In addition to our participation in the African Ministers' Council
on Water (AMCOW) we have been active in watercourse commissions that were
established to manage the rivers we share with our neighbouring countries
(Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Mozambique, Botswana, and Zimbabwe).
* During the past year I approved a national list of protected tree species
under the National Forests Act, 1998 (Act 84 of 1998) and the department
developed guidelines for the use of these trees to ensure the continued
benefits they offer to the people of the country both economically and
ecologically.
* For the first time ever in South Africa, I published a list of 21 Champion
Trees which are also protected under the National Forests Act but which are not
necessarily indigenous trees. These trees are classified as Champion Trees due
to their national importance based on cultural and historical significance,
size, age, aesthetic and economic value.
There were also a number of challenges faced by the water and forestry
sectors over the past year these include the ongoing delays in the issuing of
the water licences for aforestation, pollution in dams and rivers, the need to
ramp up delivery of access to water and sanitation, capacity of certain
municipalities to deliver services, overburdened waste water infrastructure
arising from increased number of users and the drought that hit our country
this past summer. The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry also has a
number of internal challenges particularly our ongoing restructuring and our
qualified audit; I have committed to dealing with both issues and in particular
have a clean audit by the end of my term of office.
3. Department of Water Affairs and Forestry regional offices
Chairperson, honourable members, the Department of Water Affairs and
Forestry has a strong provincial focus with a regional office in each of the
nine provinces. These offices are an important part of Department of Water
Affairs and Forestry as they deal with the day to day water issues of
provincial and local government as well as provincial forestry activities. For
example, they support municipalities in their day to day water and sanitation
service delivery by providing guidance and planning and intervene in cases
where there is a crisis. Our Northern Cape regional office recently launched a
very interesting programme on training and supporting municipalities on
operations and maintenance of infrastructure. This initiative involved
development of training manuals that guide municipalities on how to manage
their infrastructure.
Our regional offices also provide support and oversight over the
institutions we have in provinces such as water user associations, water boards
and Catchment Management Agencies (CMAs). Importantly, our regional offices are
responsible for maintaining good relationships with various stakeholders in the
province and many are involved in provincial government structures dealing with
water and sanitation delivery. They are also the first port of call when
applying for a water use or forestry licence and in co-operation with water
services authorities and water boards are involved in monitoring the quality of
drinking water.
4. Department of Water Affairs and Forestry budget 2007/08
Out of a total budget of R5,3 billion, R3,1 billion (or 58% of the budget)
will be allocated to our regional offices during the 2007/08 financial year.
The budget I table before you today will support our efforts to grow the
forestry sector, as well as address the basic water and sanitation needs of our
people, contribute to infrastructure development, regulate and monitor the
water sector, and build capacity both within Department of Water Affairs and
Forestry and in municipalities in order to effectively deliver water
services.
I would like to outline some of the key issues that will face the Department
of Water Affairs and Forestry over the 2007/08 financial year.
5. Water and sanitation services
Honourable members, one of the most important areas of our work during this
financial year is to ensure that we meet the sanitation targets for bucket
eradication in the formal established settlements, and make substantial
progress in eradicating the backlog of access to water by 2008.
Our biggest challenge over the next four years is to address the sanitation
backlog by the end of the 2010 financial year. We have identified the backlog
in each province and municipality and for example in Limpopo we still have
approximately 800 000 households without adequate sanitation, and KwaZulu-Natal
is also faced with a significant backlog with over 700 000 households not
having access to adequate sanitation. Already provinces such as Mpumalanga, as
well as, individual municipalities like Maquassi Hills in North West and
Elundini Municipality in the Eastern Cape have already eradicated 100% of their
bucket backlog. They are to be congratulated.
A significant increase in the water and sanitation budget of 19,9% for this
financial year will help in addressing some of these backlogs but it is clear
that additional resources will be required given the magnitude of the
backlog.
Municipalities play a critical role in addressing the backlogs and we are
continuing with our programme of deploying engineers to municipalities that
require additional capacity. This support will see us strengthen our
collaboration with the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) Siyenza Manje
initiative, the Department of Provincial and Local Government's Project
Consolidate and provincial government, we are also looking at continuing to
bring in international expertise.
Part of our support to local government includes running a councillor
induction programme to empower them with an understanding of the water sector
and legislation, as well as the different role-players and their
responsibilities within the sector we will be strengthening the programme this
year. We are also reviewing and improving over 150 water services development
plans. Department of Water Affairs and Forestry has developed a checklist which
is used by water services authorities, municipalities responsible for the
provision of water services as a tool to identify capacity constraints and
areas of intervention in the provision of effective water services.
6. Water resources
Honourable members, in ensuring that there is some water for all my
department has the dual responsibility of promoting water conservation and
water demand management on the one hand and on the other hand responsible for
the construction and upgrading of infrastructure to meet the increasing demand
of water. While it is critical that we promote these two approaches so that we
maximise how we utilise our available water resources before embarking on new
water resources infrastructure development projects, we recognise the need to
capture and store water.
I have already mentioned the De Hoop Dam, one of our leading infrastructure
projects as well as several other infrastructure projects we have
infrastructure refurbishment, rehabilitation, operations and maintenance
programme in each province.
Most of the department's current water resources infrastructure development
projects are implemented in rural areas particularly in the Limpopo,
KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Western Cape provinces. For new projects a
provisional sum of money is identified for spending on training of the labour
force and targets are set to ensure the involvement of women and youth in these
projects.
The honourable chairperson of the Select Committee on Land and Environmental
Affairs will be pleased to hear that in the North West province we will be
undertaking a water quality remedial project for the Hartebeespoort Dam, with
the assistance of Rand Water.
On water conservation and water demand management we have supported very
successful pilots in municipalities like Mangaung, Cape Town, and Emfuleni.
7. Forestry
Chairperson, as with water we need to acknowledge the crucial role already
being played by provincial and local government in the national forestry
agenda. Many provinces and municipalities are aware of the benefits of forestry
not just for the social and aesthetic benefits which trees and forests provide,
but more importantly for the livelihood support and economic benefits which
they provide.
In terms of the economic growth and development which forestry offers, we
are working closely with other government structures in the Eastern Cape and
KwaZulu-Natal to fast track the aforestation licensing process which involves
support from a number of other provincial departments.
These new forestry areas will be singularly important in the transformation
and growth of the forestry sector and as such, aforestation forms an important
part of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBEE) Charter which has
been completed and agreed with the sector.
In addition, the Charter, which I plan to launch next month captures all the
key national priorities for the sector reflected in the Accelerated and Shared
Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA), the associated Joint Initiative on
Priority Skills Acquisition (Jipsa) and the last two State of the Nation
addresses (SONA) by President Mbeki which called for a strategy for the forest,
timber, pulp and paper sectors.
The department has worked closely with other departments on the process of
reducing the administrative burden on forestry development. Applications for
aforestation have increased dramatically from 800 hectares in 2004 to 5 500
hectares this year and under the Charter we are aiming to process in the order
of 15 000 hectares per year for the next 10 years with the intention of getting
a net increase in forestry of about 10 000 hectares per year. We have also
managed to almost halve the original time of about 18 months to process a
licence application and have plans in place to further reduce this timeframe.
We are also planning to use the progressive provisions in the National Forests
Act to provide direct support to communities in this and other forest
enterprise areas. Strategic interventions such as the establishment of the
special purpose vehicle AsgiSA Eastern Cape (Pty) Ltd will assist in driving
the implementation of the forestry program in these key areas.
Aforestation will take place in rural areas where there are few other viable
opportunities for job creation and economic activity. The development of these
additional raw material resources will attract greater processing capacity in
the form of sawmills, board mills, chipping plants and treatment plants. All
these will lead to broad economic growth. For example, through this
aforestation an additional R500 million per annum could be generated on the
plantations part of the industry which had a turnover of R32 billion last year
and add in excess of R1,5 billion per annum in the value adding processes.
8. Water for economic growth and water for poverty eradication
Honourable members, Department of Water Affairs and Forestry also has an
important role to play in using water for both economic growth and in
contributing towards poverty eradication - it is therefore necessary that
during the coming year we use our budget towards achieving these broader
government objectives. Through current initiatives such as the Masibambane
Programme, our greening programme and our support programme to resource poor
farmers we will be contributing towards poverty alleviation. This support will
be provided by running projects such as food gardens, planting of fruit trees,
rain water harvesting, skills development for rural women as well as other
projects that can bring food to the table of the poor using water as a
strategic resource.
We are also implementing the Working for Water Programme in collaboration
with other departments. The majority of the working for water budget allocation
of R387 million in the 2007/08 financial year will be spent in provinces.
Chairperson, during this year we will be identifying how we can increase our
support to further add to our contribution towards job creation, poverty
eradication and economic growth.
9. Conclusion
To conclude I would like to thank the Director-General of the Department of
Water Affairs and Forestry, Mr Jabu Sindane for his support and to the staff in
the department for their hard work and commitment. I would also like to thank
the Select Committee on Land and Environmental Affairs for the important
oversight work that it does.
Chairperson, honourable members, I request the House to support my
department's budget of R5,3 billion.
I thank you!
Issued by: Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
24 May 2007
