West Provincial Water Summit, Mmabatho Convention Centre
19 January 2006
Programme Director
North West MEC for Developmental Local Government and Housing, MEC Phenye
Vilakazi
Directors-General in the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
Representative of the Executive Mayor of Mafikeng
DiKgosi tsa Rona
North West Chairperson of the South African Local Government Association
(SALGA)
Advisers to the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry
Mayors, Councillors, Municipal Managers and Government Officials
Distinguished Guests and Delegates
Ladies and Gentlemen
It is my distinguished honour to offer a few opening words of welcome as we
start this important two-day North West Provincial Water Summit today.
Even though we have passed the half-way mark in the first month of 2006, we
feel this summit is a very vibrant and healthy way of beginning the year as it
deals with an indispensable resource of life itself, water and how all the
citizens of North West can have access to it but also to preserve the
resource.
We in the province attach a high value to this summit as we think it
provides us an opportunity for Government and all stakeholders in the province
to deliberate and formulate strategies and resolutions that would move speedily
to address the challenges of water and sanitation just as we rededicate
ourselves to providing clean, safe, potable water and sanitation for all
citizens by year 2010.
I know Minister Sonjica has already been to the province of Mpumalanga where
she satisfied herself with the particular water needs and challenges of those
communities. We thank her most profusely for taking time to offer North West
the same attention.
We understand fully why she could not be here with us this morning and we
would like to wish her a speedy recovery indeed.
But I am certain that she would have brought us good news of what the
Department of Water Affairs and Forestry can and will do for our province in
terms of information on the national water situation, institutional and
technical support to water users, Disaster Management Support as well as
effective regulation of water and sanitation to ensure sustainable water
services.
I am certain also that this summit will receive various presentations on the
unique state of the North West Province in relation to water services, but
allow me, Ladies and Gentlemen, to indulge you on this uniqueness that defines
our Platinum Province.
Strategically located in the North West region of our country South Africa,
our province borders with four other provinces as well as Botswana and boasts a
diverse socio-political character with its own unique developmental needs.
We are essentially a peaceful, stable and scenic province with a sense of
hospitality that you would not find anywhere. But because we are driven by the
need for continued socio-political integration and economic growth and
development, you will find that North West is one of the fastest growing
provinces economically.
This is not to say we do not possess our unique set of challenges with
regard to water services that we must provide to our communities.
One of the most critical of these challenges in our water resources is that
the province has limited and very vulnerable groundwater as well as low
yielding seasonal rivers in the interior, resulting in limited water resource
availability generally.
Hence, we have an uneven spread of water and a costly regional distribution
across the province. This is what you find on the ground as reality.
But perhaps the most critical of the challenges that this summit must look
at is the huge backlog in basic sanitation services which continues to condemn
many of our people to the inhuman bucket system.
Many of our population still use the bucket system, while the total
sanitation needs represent about 25% of the total population. We therefore need
to move with great speed to address this challenge in the less than 5 years we
have before 2010.
A lot of our work and efforts therefore needs greater cooperation between
the national Department of Water Affairs and Forestry and water users,
including most importantly our local municipalities.
I am certain that our Provincial Government together with Minister Sonjicaâs
department as well as the South African Local Government Association are fully
determined to assist municipalities that are unable to deliver as water
services authorities so as to ensure we meet our target of 2010.
Similarly, we stand determined as National and Provincial Governments, as
well as SALGA, to assist in ensuring effective use of the Municipal
Infrastructure Grant (MIG) towards delivery in water services.
One of the ways in which we will attain a speedy delivery of water services
and sanitation in the province will be to ensure smooth alignment and
integration between the Water Sectoral goals and those specific goals contained
in our Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS).
I cannot go into details here about the modalities of this alignment and
integration except to say we hope this summit provides the necessary platform
for sharing knowledge and experiences as to how best we can meet our
obligations both in terms of our 2010 target and the Provincial Growth and
Development Strategy.
We will further rely on this summit not only to capture and share best
practices in Water Resources and Water Services across the country, but also to
give clarity with regards to issues of national policy, strategy and
guidelines.
Given all these challenges, we are convinced the North West Provincial Water
Summit is the appropriate forum to explore further and share solutions to these
challenges in a fairly practical manner.
However, we are heartened that the North West Water Sector Forum has already
been established and further gathered momentum last year. We must therefore
give the forum all the necessary support and direction, including investigating
possible avenues of rendering their work as effective as possible, such as
giving more teeth to it as a structure to influence development, policy and
strategy across the three spheres of government.
In conclusion, Distinguished Guests and Delegates, let me express my sincere
confidence that this summit will come out with innovative and practical means
by which delivery of this important service and source of life is fast-tracked
so that we meet the target that we have set for ourselves.
I have often said that our people ask for nothing extraordinary. They ask
only for the hope and opportunity to live as other more fortunate people live.
They ask only to live as the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa
provides and that is a better life for all. I hope that this Water Summit will
make that ideal a reality and in the shortest possible time.
I wish you all in this Water Summit fruitful discussions and deliberations
that will take us closer to the goal of access to clean running water and
decent sanitation for all citizens of the North West Province and of South
Africa.
PULA!
I thank you.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, North West Provincial Government
19 January 2006
Source: North West Provincial Government (http://www.nwpg.gov.za/)
