Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this media briefing.
As you are aware, I will be delivering the 2011 budget vote of the Department of Water Affairs this afternoon. We have called you here to give you an overview of the budget for 2011/12 and share some of the highlights with you.
Let me begin by pointing out that the strategic approach of the Department of Water Affairs during this financial year is to work together with the people of South Africa to make more water available for increased access by all communities, economic growth and the creation of decent jobs. All our programmes will therefore be geared towards contributing to the attainment of this strategic vision of our government.
First, we want to build on the significant progress we have made in the commissioning of key water augmentation projects of strategic economic importance to the country. These include the Mokolo and Crocodile River (West) project which will supply water to Eskom’s new Medupi power station and other industries in the area as well as households within the Lephalale Local Municipality from 2014. The estimated cost for the first phase is R2 billion of which R600 million will be spent over the next years.
About 75 percent of this phase will be funded by off budget sources while the remainder will come from our budget and we expect the first water delivery in 2014. We have already awarded a R2.2 billion contract for the construction of the Spring Grove Dam on the Mooi River in KwaZulu-Natal to supply water to the ILembe district and Ethekwini Metro by November next year. In the same vein, we will spend R91,2 million in this financial year to raise the Hazelmere Dam to augment the water supply to Umgeni Water for treatment and supply to the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast in the areas of Mdloti to Thukela.
We will continue with the construction of De Hoop Dam in Limpopo and its associated distribution systems to deliver water for domestic and agricultural use in the Greater Sekhukhune, Waterberg and Capricorn District Municipalities.
The estimated cost for completing the construction of the De Hoop Dam which began in 2007 is approximately R3.1 billion. Of this amount, R2.1 billion has already been spent up to the 2010/11 financial year and R296 million will be spent over the next three years.
The distribution network will be constructed concurrently with the completion of the dam. A total of R13.1 billion is required for the distribution network which will serve a total of three million people in the domestic sector.
We will also commission the construction of a water conveyance system from the Vaal Dam to Secunda to augment the water supply to Eskom power stations in Mpumalanga and SASOL. These projects are expected to go a long way in boosting economic development and access to water by our communities.
We also pay particular attention to the issue of water security which has been recently enjoying much public attention. While I understand the concerns and the fears that the country may run out of water in the future, I want to assure all South Africans that we are on top of things.
In the addition to the infrastructure development that is currently underway, we are also finalising the planning and preparing for the construction of other dams and related infrastructure.
These include the completion of water treatment works and the bulk distribution system from Nandoni Dam in Limpopo, the construction of a pipeline from the Flag Boshielo Dam to Mokopane and nearby communities, the completion of feasibility studies and designs of the Umzimvubu and Foxwood Dams in the Eastern Cape, the construction of the bulk distribution pipelines and reticulation networks from the Jozini Dam in KZN as well as the Groot Letaba Augmentation Project, consisting of the raising of the Tzaneen Dam and the finalization of the plans for the construction of N’wamita Dam and the associated water treatment plant and bulk distribution pipelines.
We have done our projections and forecasts in order to ensure adequate preparation for future water needs throughout the country. My department has also undertaken reconciliation studies for all our metropolitan areas to establish future water needs that factor in population and economic growth. These are aimed at ensuring water shortages are prevented before they occur. We are therefore confident that the measures we are taking will ensure that we don’t run out of water anytime in the future.
Efforts are already underway to try and circumvent possible water shortages that quite a number of people have been predicting. We are venturing into the use of sea water and ground water and we are beginning to see the benefits of these efforts. We have already secured water supply for the Eden District through the desalination of sea water from Mosselbay, Sedgefield and Bitou. Various studies have also revealed that there are vast amounts of groundwater in our country, hence we have developed a multi-pronged ground water strategy with a focus on supporting municipalities with implementation plans.
Another focus point of our programme for this year will be water quality. We are aware that to achieve this goal we need to work closely with municipalities and we will continue to build capacity at local government level. Our Green and Blue drop certification programmes are receiving accolades from the international community as innovative and ground breaking initiatives.
The introduction of the targeted risk based regulation also ensures that all municipalities are informed on the site-specific risks posed to their wastewater operations with tangible targets set for improvement planning. Since our previous green and blue drop assessment period, we have deployed what we call the Emergency Response Facility. I will give more insight into this during my budget vote address.
We are also strengthening our enforcement capacity by increasing the number of Blue Scorpions (our water enforcement unit). We believe this will help us act decisively against polluters and illegal water users.
As we have already announced, we will use section 19 of the Water Act to follow up on the polluters. However my department is leading the government process to rehabilitate and clean up the toxic mine water to address the Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) challenge in the Gauteng area. Is I have previously said, the pump station that will be used to draw the AMD is expected to be ready early next year. It is the private sector that has caused AMD and the accompanying crisis that has developed around it in the Western Basin of Gauteng but as government we are duty-bound to ensure good health and safety of all our communities and the protection of the environment.
I thank you.
