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Ladies and gentlemen, on the eve of the tabling of the National Water Bill before Parliament for its final consideration before passing it as law, I speak to you with a sense-of elation and jubilation. Today, 5 August 1998, heralds a new era in the history of South Africa's water law. For, once the Bill is passed I will be joined in my celebration by millions of South Africans, especially women and children, who, because of their skin colour, had been denied over the years their basic human right - access to clean water. For the first time they will stand as equals with everyone queuing for their allocation of water.

Tomorrow will also mark the death-knell of the present Water Act of 1956 which we will throw into the dustbin of history. Borrowed from overseas countries by the past regime, the current water had no relevance to the economic and social needs our people. Not only was it outdated and eurocentric, it caused untold misery among the impoverished communities in the rural areas.

I take comfort in the knowledge that in this Bill there is something for everyone. The environment which is the producer of water itself will enjoy that minimum amount of water that it requires to carry its ecological function. The stigma of monopolising water use rights will be removed from those who by virtue of having a river passing through their properties, they had the right to use as much water as they wanted, even to the detriment of downstream users. The National Water Bill will now remove that stigma. All will enjoy the rights to use water simply because they use water beneficially in the public interest.

The Bill also takes a proactive approach in the treatment of water requirements for those countries with whom South Africa shares rivers. The bill obliges that water for international requirements should be treated as a priority. This is a new approach to regional co-operation. It is central to the concept of African Renaissance. It is an approach that is based on fairness and ethics. It is not based on military or economic might that one country might have over another.

The bill is also putting into effect a very bold step forward. It is decentralising a plethora of functions to catchment management agencies (CMAs) which will be established at local level. This follows the internationally well known principle of subsidiary. Users of water will now play a direct role in decisions affecting water resources directly to the CMA. So they will know exactly what their money is used for and for and how.

I know that at the back of your minds you all want to ask the question of the constitutionality of the Bill. Is the bill constitutional or not. Perhaps this is a debate that will not die in the near future. But one can only do the best that one can. In this case I am satisfied that my department and I have done whatever enough to ensure that the Bill is constitutional. Through a combination of verbal and written legal opinion from diverse Seniors Counsel we have adjusted the Bill during various stages of the Bill to ensure that it is constitutional. Those who are opposed to the Bill have stated their intention to challenge the Bill in the Constitutional court. I would appeal to those people to work with the department in the implementation of the Bill to ensure that their concerns are taken into account.

As in any activity that involves people there will always be disputes. In cases of disputes a dispute resolution mechanism is established in the bill, i.e. the Water tribunal. It is accessible in terms of costs unlike the current water court which is just another court. The water tribunal will be lean, mobile and efficient in decision making.

Now that the Bill will soon become law there is concern as to whether about whether the department will have the necessary resources to implement the requirements of the Bill. It is true that the Bill will place certain demands in the department which were not there previously. In anticipation of these demands the Bill will be progressively implemented in other words only certain section of the Bill will come into effect immediately. Other sections will only come into effect on a staggered basis to allow the department to cope with only a certain amount of work at a time. The creation of catchment management Agencies will also remove a lot of functions from the department directly as these functions will be decentralised.

A. Forestry

1. Structuring of state forestry assets

The Department manages 150 000 hectares of commercial forest plantations that were inherited from the former homeland administrations and SAFCOL (the state-owned forestry enterprise) a similar amount. These plantations were started by government in order to provide timber to the sawmilling industry at a time when there was very little private sector- involvement in the growing of trees. These plantations have helped to facilitate the development of the wood based industries in South Africa. There is now extensive private sector involvement in forestry, and sophisticated markets exist, and thus no longer a need for Government to provide timber.

Government policy is that it will no longer involve itself in the direct management of commercial plantations. To this end the Department together with the Department of Public Enterprises is involved in a process of restructuring our commercial forests. We will lease the land out to private operators on the basis of agreed conditions relating to environmental, social and commercial responsibilities.

To our knowledge, the restructuring of the Department's forest assets, together with the restructuring of SAFCOL comprises the largest single transfer of state forest land to the private sector in history. We will do this, in close consultation with the representatives of the workers concerned, in a way that achieves key social objectives including:

* Rural based industrial development.

* Promotion of job-creating and value-adding downstream industries.
* Provision of direct benefits to communities who have rights in the land.

* Protection of indigenous portions of the forest estate.

Because the forest land will not be sold, we are in the process of consulting with other government departments in order to set up a Forest Land Management Agency which will administer the leases and manage key aspects of land use. Some of the plantations are not suitable for industrial use and will be transferred, in time, to local communities.

The process is a difficult and complex one. We nonetheless hope to have issued an invitation to bid and identified preferred bidders by the end of this year.

2. New Forestry Legislation

This major restructuring project, will be supported by two pieces of legislation currently in Parliament - the National Forests Bill and the National Forests and Veld Fire Bill.

The Forests Bill will bring a new- legislative framework to forestry as a whole which we hope will ensure its long term economic and ecological success. It establishes principles for Sustainable Forestry Management. through a system of criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management.

These indicators will be worked out by a statutory committee comprised of all the major forestry stakeholders, falling under the National Forests Council. Once these indicators are in place they will become requirements for the management of both commercial and indigenous forests. They will enable forests to get a "green certificate" as sustainably managed for export purposes

The Bill will also ensure that the public has reasonable access to forestry land for recreational purposes. Strong provisions are made for access to forests on state land, and this will be governed by a set of guidelines, also drawn up by the National Forests Advisory Council. In addition, provision is made for the protection of indigenous forests as well as support for community forestry.

3. Conservation and Community Forestry

The Department manages a third of South Africa's remaining indigenous forests. These forests are a national treasure and an important store of biodiversity. In the past these forests were managed along narrow conservation lines. The Department is now mandated to manage these forests with the involvement of local communities. A number of pilot projects of Joint Forest Management are now operating. These projects demonstrate the way in which forests can be protected at the same as providing a sustainable economic resource for communities.

Community forestry has received a major boost in recent years. We are involved in a large number of projects which assist communities to use trees as an economic resource. Community forestry has the potential to play a major role in rural development and local economic initiatives. We are also giving greater attention to urban forestry and working with local governments in this regard.

B.l Water Services Budget

As with several other infrastructure departments, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry now faces a situation where its capacity to deliver exceeds the resources available to it. Because our programme has grown faster than expected by the financial planners, we are in fact facing a cut back. Intensive negotiations are underway to address this and we hope that it will not be necessary to cancel projects which have already started.

We do not underestimate the serious impact this situation is having on communities, their local governments, NGO's and construction companies. We are working closely with all concerned to minimise the impact of the budgetary restrictions - something which is not new, certainly to the construction industry. Indeed, my Director-General and his deputy responsible for Financial Management are today at a meeting called by the Department of finance to review the Medium Term Expenditure Framework - with particular reference to infrastructure investment.

We estimated in 1994 that we would need to spend about R1000 million annually until 2004 to meet the Constitutional obligation of ensuring access to basic water services. There were then 12 mil}ion South Africans who lacked adequate water supplies and 21 million lack adequate sanitation, mainly in rural areas. (We expect the Municipal Infrastructure Programme of Constitutional Development to provide for the growth in population of perhaps 750 000 people annually, which will occur principally in the urban areas).

During the 1997/98 financial year the programme reached its peak spending level at R933 m. At this level, we believe we could meet the water supply if not the sanitation target by 2004 in line with RDP goals. This has been cut to R540 million this year. I am committed to working with my colleagues to review our targets and our. allocations to ensure that the budgetary process is guided by the fundamental targets we set for ourselves. (Indeed, this matter was discussed in Cabinet thus morning).

B.2 Water Services Act

Rapid progress has been achieved with the implementation of the Water Services Act, 1997. Since 19 December I997 when the Act was assented into law, several drafts of the norms and standard for water service provision including norms and standard for tariffs have been developed. Included in the vast amount of work completed has been the development of draft formats of the water services development plans, model contracts and bylaws including pioneering work for the review of business plans from water boards. Throughout this work, the Department has relied upon the inclusion of the stakeholders in the process and actual work, notably, SALGA and Water Boards and the Department of Constitutional Development. 14 August 1998 is a big day when different theme teams that have been working on the six priority areas will produce their outputs.

C. National Water Bill

The process of the National Water law review, which started over three years ago is now approaching the end. Late this afternoon it is expected that the Bill will be passed by Parliament when it is tabled for the last reading in the National Assembly. It has been a process that has been characterised by a lot of emotion from those who oppose the bill and from the overwhelming majority of our people, black and white, who support the Bill. I look back with pride at the inclusive process that we followed in drafting this Bill.

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