Isilo samabandla wonke!
Amakhosi wonke akhona lapha!
KwaZulu Natal Premier, Dr Zweli Mkhize
Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Buyelwa Sonjica
Deputy Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Rejoice Mabudafhasi
Your worships, the mayors present here
Chairperson of Mhlathuze Water Board, Dudu Myeni
Members of the business community
Representatives of labour
Umphakathi wonkana waseMhlathuze noThungulu
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
I wish to begin by thanking you for the honour you have bestowed on me to participate in this sod-turning ceremony. We are all aware of the importance of water, not only to the economic growth and development of our country, but also to our continued existence as human beings. Indeed, water is life.
Not so long ago South Africa hosted the second Africa Water Week in Johannesburg. Here it was emphasised that responsibility for the provision of potable water was no longer the exclusive preserve of hydraulics engineers, but of all sectors of society. This is particularly important because there is a growing need for us to adequately manage this finite and diminishing resource.
uMhlathuze and surrounding areas have seen considerable growth in water demand, both by households and industries. This is an industrial development zone and one of the critical nodes of our Comprehensive Rural Development programme.
Providing good quality water will no doubt improve the well being of the inhabitants of this area. It will also stimulate industrial development and tourism in this fast growing nodal point. It may not seem like it at the moment, with the rains of the last week, but our country remains one of driest in the world. This means that we must save every drop of water we can.
Our growing industries, mines, urban and rural settlements, the agricultural sector and ever expanding tourism and manufacturing sectors are in constant need of this scarce resource. Without water, we run the real risk of not meeting our objective of improving the quality of life of all South Africans, particularly the rural poor. The upgrade of the Nsezi water treatment plant reflects our ability to plan ahead and anticipate the challenges of the future.
I am given to understand that this is the Mhlathuze Water Board’s biggest project, totalling R200 million. It is this project and others in the pipeline that will ensure that we continue to meet future water demand. We have an obligation to strike a balance between our social, economic development and environmental imperatives. If anything, the challenges in the electricity sector have taught us the importance of addressing future problems today.
We need to make sure that the right infrastructure is in place to provide potable water to this growing community, in line with our objective of access for all our people by 2014. More still needs to be done. The challenges we still need to address include an inability by some municipalities to roll out infrastructure, and to operate, maintain and rehabilitate water and sanitation infrastructure.
We must also deal with the spillage of sewerage into our water supply and other forms of contamination. Our country has a critical obligation to meet the millennium development goals. One of these goals is to halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. We are on track to achieve this goal, but this will require all of us, not just government and state owned enterprises, to work together with greater speed. The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs has already begun the work of streamlining service delivery to our communities.
Water is an essential part of this process, as water provision and sanitation is a competency of the local component of government. Increasingly our local government will have to rely on state owned enterprises such as Mhlathuze Water for improved service delivery. I would therefore like to urge local councillors to work together with Mhlathuze Water and other state owned utilities to provide our people with clean water, proper sanitation and decent shelter.
Our communities demand nothing less of us than we deliver on these necessities. That is why we urge you to use the Presidential hotline to report any shoddy service or maltreatment you may receive from government officials. I must thank all who have used the Presidential hotline. We have established sound relationships with officials in the provinces and municipalities, which are important for resolving problems. Many of the calls the hotline receives should ideally be handled at local government.
Residents should be taking up these issues with municipalities directly.
Municipalities should put in place mechanisms to receive and respond to such problems. Government will continue to listen and act, so that together we build the South Africa of which all of us can be proud.
Ladies and gentlemen, I must applaud Mhlathuze Water for the commendable work it continues to carry out in service of the local communities. I am aware that Mhlathuze Water is currently implementing one of the most extensive water schemes in the country, the Shemula, Hlabisa and Mandlakazi rural water scheme.
This involves more than 100 kilometres of pipeline in one of the poorest and most depressed areas of our country, namely the uMkhanyakude and Zululand district municipalities.
Together we must strive to utilise the capacity that resides within our institutions so that we can deliver to our people the better life that they deserve. We look forward to the development of infrastructure for the industrial development zone identified by the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government. We believe that without a concerted effort in the development of this region, we will not be able to tackle the poverty, disease and unemployment that affect this largely rural area.
Let me take this opportunity once again to thank Mhlathuze Water, the municipalities of uThungulu and uMhlathuze, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government and the business community for coming together in aid of rural development. You have demonstrated that together we can achieve a lot in uplifting the lives of our rural communities.
I thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
21 November 2009
Source: The Presidency (http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/)
