Commemorating Human Rights and Water Week
20 March 2007
Programme Director;
Emfuleni Municipality Executive Mayor Dikeledi Tsotetsi;
Mayor of the District Mlungisi Hlongwane;
Councillors;
Municipal Managers;
Delegates from the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry;
Representatives from Rand Water;
Water Service Consultants;
Distinguished Guests;
Organised Labour;
The People of Gauteng;
Ladies and Gentlemen
Tomorrow, the country is commemorating Human Rights Day, a day in which 69 people were brutally killed and 300 injured on the hands of the apartheid forces during an anti-pass passive resistance campaign in Sharpeville on 21st March 1960. As part of commemorating the day that is commonly known as Sharpeville Day, after assuming power, the ANC-led government declared the day a public holiday for us to reflect and ponder on the day 47 years ago when our mothers and fathers were maimed, killed and injured while expressing their dissatisfaction at carrying a dompas.
The commemoration of Human Rights Day it is significant in the history of South Africa as it also played a pivotal role in shaping the political landscape of the country. It was through sweat and blood that we were prepared to fight the apartheid regime and replace it with a legitimate government of the people by the people. Although the then government came to the negotiation table decades after the Sharpeville Massacre, the massacre of innocent, unarmed and peaceful protesting people we ultimately gained freedom and liberation.
To the victims and survivors of the brutal and barbaric act of the apartheid police force: your blood that flew on the streets of Sharpeville was not in vain. Through your peaceful protest which turned ugly because of the action of the police to use of maximum force and their bullets unnecessary we are now enjoying the fruits of freedom and liberty.
However, it is indeed sad despite the truth findings by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that police deliberately opened fire on an unarmed crowd that had gathered peacefully to protest against the repressive pass laws and that they had also failed to give the crowd a clear order to disperse before unleashing live bullets, none of the police have been prosecuted. Most sadly is that police kept on firing while the crowd was fleeing, resulting in some of the protesters being shot on the back. Such was the brutal and barbaric police system that they also failed to facilitate access to medical assistance to the victims.
In his weekly publication ANC Today, President Thabo Mbeki said: "Our country will celebrate Human Rights Day, March 21st, bestowed to the nation by the patriots who were massacred at Sharpeville on this day in 1960. I am therefore pleased to dedicate this Letter to the forthcoming Human Rights Day, which, from all points of view, is one of our most important public holidays. I genuinely hope that all South Africans, black and white, will make a special effort to attend the public events that have been organised to celebrate this pre-eminent day on our national calendar."
Programme Director;
As we enjoy the fruits of freedom and liberty, we should not forget the sacrifices made by those who came before us. We must uphold and cherish the fact that the freedom we have attained in 1994 came with a price. Today, we are facing different challenges, ranging from poverty, unemployment, crime and the HIV and Aids pandemic ravaging our country. This is despite the gains we have made since the dawn of the new dispensation.
Last week the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) visited this region to listen to the concerns of the community. It was indeed important for us to bring Parliament to the people to hear their voices when they voice concerns and compliment the democratic state. Despite all the challenges facing us, the people of this province are optimistic that a better Gauteng is in the making. With the steel industry shedding jobs in this region and mining dwindling in the West Rand region, the government has created a conducive environment through the Provincial and Growth Development Strategy which was followed by the Regional Growth and Development Strategies. This gathering comes a month after the launch of the Gauteng Sector Water Forum, an important forum aimed to foster co-ordination and collaboration between all spheres of government in relation to water resource management and water demand management strategies. The stakeholders in the forum include the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, Gauteng Department of Local Government, Gauteng municipalities and Rand Water.
Emfuleni Local Municipality is a strategic partner in the region and by addressing the water challenges in the municipality, the region will then be in a good footing with regard to water issues.
Let me also hasten to say that the theme of this summit: "Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: Achieving Millennium Development Goals and Eradicating the Bucket System" is in line with Gauteng's pursuance of the Global City Region perspective.
In his paper titled: "Water Conservation and Demand Management Potential in Southern Africa: an untapped river", Steve Rothert said "Southern Africa is a water scarce region where water is distributed unevenly in time and space. With an increasing population and its legitimate demand for an improved standard of living, requiring increased economic development and agricultural production, the region faces an enormous challenge in how to allocate, use and protect this limited resource. In addition, recurrent droughts and occasional floods further aggravate the situation."
Rothert further states that: "Water conservation and management holds tremendous potential to help the region to meet its water needs. Urban agricultural water use in Southern Africa is highly ineffective. It is estimated that nearly half the urban water is wasted through water loss or inefficiency. Similarly, irrigation in Southern Africa, which represents 69% of total consumption, is estimated to be less than 50% efficient. If irrigation practices could be made only 10% more efficient across the region, R2.5 billion would be saved each year. If urban water use across the region could be made only 10% efficient, more than R600 million would be saved each year."
Building Gauteng as a Globally Competitive City Regions derives its mandate from variety of structures within the Gauteng spatial economy. Therefore, the vision for Gauteng being a global city region requires an integrated and co-ordinated approach, where economic activities of municipalities complement each other as opposed to competing against one another. The buzz word is integration and we cannot compromise that for competition. Gone are the days that Sedibeng District Municipality will compete with the West Rand District Municipality or the City of Johannesburg Metro competing with either Tshwane or Ekurhuleni Metro.
Ekurhuleni as a manufacturing hub, should not compete with Joburg which is a financial epicentre of the province or Tshwane which is a motor manufacturing industry. By working in a coordinated and integrated approach, municipalities in the province will contribute towards building a shared vision in achieving the 2014 millenniums goals of halving poverty and unemployment in a meaningful way.
The GCR perspective also emphasises the practical linkages and social and economic relationships, the flows of goods, services and people between different parts of the province as well as its neighbouring provinces and other economic regions. For instance, Sedibeng District Municipality cannot prosper while its neighbour Sasolburg which is in the Free State is struggling because that would lead to people from that side of the border flocking to Sedibeng. Over the next ten years, we have committed ourselves to raise the level of economic growth, reduce unemployment and poverty, and ensure universal access to basic services such as water, electricity and sanitation. We have also committed ourselves to redistribute 30% of agricultural land and to transform the legacy of apartheid spatial planning.
The millennium developmental goals of halving poverty and unemployment by 2014 include the following:
Our Constitution defines access to water as a basic human right. It also states that every person has a right to live in a healthy environment and, by implication, therefore an environment which includes safe and healthy sanitary practices.
Programme Director;
Allow me to quote from the vision of the National Water Campaign: "National Water campaign is seen as an awareness week which serves as a powerful campaign mechanism re-iterating the value of water, the need for sustainable management of this scarce resource and the role water plays in eradicating poverty and under-development in South Africa."
Although much has been done in providing water and sanitation we are still faced with challenges. According to the Gauteng backlog study, there are about 631 000 households that do not have even a basic level of access to water and about 706 000 households that do not have access to basic sanitation in the province. The majority of these households live in the three metros of this province, City of Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni. According to the backlog study, the estimated cost for eradicating the water and sanitation backlog in Gauteng amounts to R6.2 billion.
This figure is based on the assumptions that new infrastructure would be provided to the households that are currently without adequate services. This cost is also for the provision of basic services only. Should it be deemed that the current standards for basic services need to be improved on the costs would probably rise significantly. To put this challenge into its perspective, the current capital expenditure on water amounts to R683-million per annum, which is aimed at dealing with backlogs and also providing for new developments. The one thing that is clear to me is that resources required to eradicate the backlogs will not come from local government alone. New financing strategies will need to be considered if we are to deal with this challenge decisively.
In a study conducted in 2005, Rand Water estimated that almost 27% of water bought by municipalities is lost on a daily basis, which at prices of the time amounted to about R1.9 million per day. This is money paid for water by municipalities but lost into the ground by users. Here in Emfuleni Local Municipality, one of the poorest municipalities in the province the problem was estimated to be loosing water at an alarming rate, about 40% water loss. Since the deployment of accounts and engineers to assist municipalities deal with unaccounted water, revenue enhancement and to build institutional capacity, it is worthy noting that Emfuleni has turned the situation for the better.
It worth noting that the role of the department in monitoring and support municipalities through working with the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) and the South African Institute of Civil Engineers (SAICE) is bearing fruit. Over the past two years, Emfuleni has reduced the water loss from 40% to 25%. The engineers are not only dealing with issues of engineering but they have helped in addressing issues such as project management. We will continue supporting municipalities in our quest to make local government work better.
During the NCOP visit last week, the Premier made an undertaking to follow up with treasury to allocate the R50-million needed to address the bulk sewer supply in order to avoid spillages into the Vaal River.
Emfuleni has completed water projects to the value of R28.6million; water demand management project has expanded and managed to rehabilitate the existing sewer system to the tune of R3-million.The municipality has also improved its cash flow position significantly from an overdraft of R47-million in May 2005 to a positive cash balance of more than R60-million by 15 September 2006.
It is therefore important to preserve and safe water. The majority of our people have no access to water life in rural areas some distance from existing water supply system, making supply services to them difficult and expensive. It is important to preserve water. According to Rothert, water conservation is generally accepted to mean 'the minimazation of loss of water or waste, the preservation, carte and protection of water resource and the efficient and effective use of water'.
Demand management has been defined as ' the adaptation and implementation of a strategy by water institutions to influence water demand and usage in order to met any of the following objectives: economic efficiency, social development, social equity, environmental protection, sustainability of water supply services and services and politically acceptability.
We have committed ourselves to eradicate the inhumane bucket system by 30 June 2007 in order to give people the dignity they deserve. During the Legislature Media Briefings this month, we announced that, despite all the challenges we have encountered of eliminating all identified bucket systems, we have so far removed 12, 303 of the 12, 332 and replaced them with water borne or Ventilated Improved pit-latrines (VIP) systems. That on its own Programme Director is worth of praise.
Although municipalities are providing residents with free 6000 kilolitres, in the City of Johannesburg some residents, through the assistance of the Wits Law School, have take the municipality to court saying the installation of water meters is unconstitutional. The matter is subjudice and we are eagerly waiting for the court to pronounce on the matter.
According to Suther, water providers in Gauteng could delay the construction of the next supply dam by twelve years through an effective water conservation/water demand programme and save R2-billion annually. Water conservation/water demand principles in Gauteng should be integrated fully into water supply planning, i.e. water potentially produced through efficiency and decreased losses should be considered alongside other options at the beginning of water supply planning processes. Water management entities should establish targets or standards for water use efficiency and allow loss for each water sector and develop strategies to achieve those target. In conclusion, I wish you the best in your deliberations. Let us remember that tomorrow is Human Rights Day, therefore we need to come out in numbers to celebrate the day and to honour our fallen heroes and heroines who sacrificed their lives for us to achieve freedom.
I thank you.