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PROF KADER ASMAL MP, MINISTER OF WATER AFFAIRS & FORESTRY.

Madam Speaker: It was Philip Larkin who wrote:

If I were called in
To construct a religion
I should make use of water.

As the term of the first democratic Parliament of South Africa draws to a close, it is my pleasure to report to this House on a subject, which is central to our nationhood. The critical thing that marks out those planets in the universe that have the possibility of life is, simply: water.

This report is, in a sense, a farewell; a final accounting for a full five years of office.

The first question we have to ask is: where have we come from? The struggle to provide water to all has its roots in a broader struggle, for liberation. During past decades, many of us left our homes suddenly, sneaking out back doors, crossing inhospitable farmlands, rivers and hills to exile. We found ourselves in the snowdrifts of Russia, the steamy hills of Morogoro, the urban canyons of New York, and even the green fields of Ireland - while many remained in the prisons and dungeons of apartheid South Africa. All we had were the memories of the landscape, of the sights, sounds and smells of home - of the country that, surely, we would return to as full citizens when the battle was over.

It was a long journey. When, after far too many years, we returned, the landscape whose memory we had carried with us was different. For many homes were demolished, families evicted; friends imprisoned or dead; where once we had run and played there were barbed fences and high walls, with strangers on both sides. Dark forest closed off hillsides where we had grazed our fathers' cattle and goats.

It was a bitter land to which we returned. There was muCh that had to be done.

Change does not just happen. It is made to happen. It took a particular collectivity of evil to wreak the dreadful changes that occurred in our land over four decades, reinforcing as they did centuries of past injustice. But as we look back, we will see that, after five brief years, there is change for the better. Our children cry with laughter and hope once again. Millions are able to say; these are better times.

Five years ago, when the 12 million people who had no water asked to whom they should turn, they were told - that is your problem, water supply is a local business, not the business of national government. They looked in vain for help.

Five years ago, towns, industry, even national parks, were told; sorry, water in the river belongs to those who own the land next to it. If you want it, speak to the farmers.

Five years ago, commercial forest plantations in too many places were zones of exclusion where authorities made sweetheart deals, promising timber to strangers from outside, planting trees with their roots in the rivers where no plantation should ever be.

Already, in five short years, much of that has changed. Today, when we rest by the river and hear it dance through the reeds, it tells a new story, how it serves all, not only the few. Water is now being managed for the benefit of the nation as a whole.

Those peasants standing in their bone-dry fields now have someone to turn to, for a little sweet water to cook, wash and drink. There is now a national custodian ready to intervene if local government fails, unreasonably, to deliver. For those communities hemmed in by dark forests, there is now finally the prospect that they will share in the bounty from their land. The commercial forests will in future be managed to bring the maximum benefit to the rural communities around them. Access to them, for firewood and herbs, is secure. No longer will they be forced to plunder the forests of their ancestors for firewood. The saplings will grow. The birds of Dukuduku will sing again.

So, Madam Speaker, we can see that a bright new light bathes our beloved countryside. We hear our land stirring. There are huge changes afoot, but this time they are changes of our making.

We are in fact transforming the nature of the state. The point is that it must not be dismantled but empowered; it must not be in hock to selfish and inefficient private interests; it must be a state that is robust, fighting fit, unbloated - indeed, one that is energised by society even as it energises society in return. All this we have begun to do in the Department. We have been guided by the concept of the public trust, the promotion and, where necessary, the enforcement of fair and efficient rules that forbid private petty selfishness to trump the public good.

So, as I turn to tell you about the achievements and future programmes, let us look across South Africa and identify a few things which we have not done, because it is these that perhaps best explain what we are trying to do. For instance:

It was not my Department that invested R120 million on a dam at Broodkraal near Piketberg in the Western Cape, to create 700 permanent new jobs and 1 700 temporary construction jobs, and a new table grape export industry in that area. When I visit there today, I see children playing happily around their new homes, while parents work in new vineyard.

It is not my Department which his playing the jackhammer kwaito as the R400 million expansion of the Malelane sugar mill is built to take cane from hundreds of new Komati River irrigation farmers.

In the shadow of the Drakensberg, it is not Trevor Manuel's R150 million being invested to save water, replacing leaky canals with so many pipes that an entire factory has been saved, and, while doing this, expanding irrigation to as many as 160 emerging farmers.

It is not government which is exporting crates of South Africa's Bambamanzi pre-paid water meters to clients across the world; it is not government which has established Water South Africa to co-ordinate the marketing of our water expertise abroad.

We did not start the factory that takes the lovely yellow pine from our Eastern Cape forests and transform it into cabinets for the kitchens of Europe. It is not government that is doing business selling charcoal from the waste wood removed by the Working for Water programme.

These are all initiatives by South Africans outside the government, individually or corporately. But, make no mistake about it, they are being taken because government has provided the framework, in water and forestry, within which all South Africans can get to work.

WHAT WE ARE DOING

So, Madam Speaker, one of our unsung achievements has been to put frameworks in place to achieve the growth part of the Reconstruction and Development Programme.

Water supply and sanitation

But we have also addressed development. Of all the cries we heard when we came to office, that of the women struggling under the burden of carrying water and caring for families was among the most urgent. We found MPs, even our own President, without running water, in their rural homes. We found women, more than a dozen in one area, killed by crocodiles while drawing water from muddy rivers. So we are proud that the Department's community water programme has brought basic supplies to three million two hundred thousand people in rural areas and that projects are underway to reach a further 2 million. And the Cabinet has decided that, at national level, we shall continue this water-supply function over the next five to seven years, at least until local government is strong enough to take the baton from there.

The formal budget provision of R530 million for next year will use only half our capacity to deliver, measured by the sum of R1 040 million that we will spend on community water projects in the current year. Projects are prepared, communities and their local governments stand ready to implement them. With support from donors and possible allocations from other discretionary funds, we are hopeful that we will be able to use our full capacity.

But we are not working alone. As part of our mandate to monitor the water services of the nation, we note that the basic service needs of four million new South African born since 1994 have also been met. They have been met principally by city governments, by the substantial investments of public water boards, as well as by grants from the Consolidated Municipal Infrastructure Programme and the Housing Programme.

So, nearly seven million people have been provided with basic water supplies since 1994, by all spheres of government. With the investments already on stream and the delivery framework that is already in place, I am convinced that we will find that, in the first ten years of democratic government, we shall have supplied water to more people than the original goal of 12 million.

Two critical areas must be highlighted. The first is that of improving sanitation. In rural areas, not enough has been done. There are many reasons for this but it remains a priority to which we are committed to working with the Departments of Health, Environment, Constitutional Development and Housing. In urban areas, there is worrying evidence that poor maintenance and operation of sewage systems is leading to pollution of neighbourhoods and rivers alike.

This relates to the second problem area, sustainable, ongoing operation and maintenance. We must ensure that the infrastructure we provide is properly managed, even if it means spending less to put pipes in the ground. Funds have been allocated to ensure that new schemes are handed over to local governments with the capacity to run them, to monitor local government performance and identify problems, to help them to plan their service provision and train their staff.

I wish to make it clear that local authorities are under an obligation to provide for basic water services under the Constitution and in terms of the Water Service Act. As Minister, I shall use the full force of law to ensure compliance. I have in mind areas such as Madallas Bos in the Macassar area of affluent Helderberg, which I visited recently, where after ten years the community still has no permanent water supply or adequate sanitation.

Services must be sustainable but they must also be affordable. If the very poor cannot pay, there will have to be continued subsidisation. Tariff policy and local government's equitable share of revenue must ensure this.

Water resources

Madam Speaker, it is self- evident that, if there is no water in the rivers and stream, no water underground, if what water there is, is fouled by animals or polluted by industry; there can be no water for the people who need it. Nor, without adequate water, can there be any of the other activities that, collectively, bring the nation to life.

Our people know very well that their needs can only be met if they are given the opportunity to work to build the better life that we all seek. So while our policy on water resources is clear that the protection of the resource is important, we cannot lose sight of the overriding objective that drives us in our management of water which is to achieve optimum benefit to society from its use.

That priority has led us to make available additional water for agriculture in Northern and Eastern Cape where we are working with the provincial government to ensure that the opportunities we have identified are effectively developed. We recognise that the mere presence of water, land and willing new farmers is not enough to translate into sustainable agricultural development. To be successful, any new scheme needs markets, management and money as well.

It is for this reason that we are encouraging co-operation and partnership between existing commercial farmers and new entrants to the business. It is why we have promoted co-operative ventures such as the Koedekouw dam in Ceres, the Paris dam near Pongola, the Blyde project in Mpumalanga at each of which new development is being supported on condition that partnership is established between commercial farmers and new entrants to the business. In the coming year, we are going to develop further tools to support such initiatives, through financial support to new farmers and by supporting the establishment of water user associations.

Madam Speaker, this democratic Parliament of ours is a bridge between the collective imagination of our people and the reality which it would bring into being. Legislation we enact is the currency of political imagination made real, legislation like the National Water Act which is the centrepiece of my Department's efforts in this Parliament.

The National Water Act deepens Government's neglected role as public trustee of the nation's water resources. It imposes common sense on private entitlements, requiring that they conform to the public good, and it terminates the arbitrary powers that I inherited from the apartheid water law. That gave me the unwanted role of Lord and Master, with unfettered ability to re-arrange private arrangements in an unaccountable fashion. That is gone. The new Act ensures that water rights are not hoarded by the few but rather deployed for the benefit of all. This Act epitomises the new way of governance in South Africa: the public and private spheres in tandem, each supplicant to nothing and no one but the public interest.

Yet we must remember that it is only if the policy tree bears practical fruit that we can claim it as a success. For this reason I emphasised at the start the practical results that are already beginning to flow from the National Water Policy. I saluted entrepreneurs and emerging farmers alike who are taking the opportunities created by insisting that water be used for the benefit of all.

In any discussion on water resources, dam building is controversial. It is of significance that the World Bank and the international conservation body, IUCN, have set up the World Commission on Dams, which I chair, to chart the way forward for the world's dam policy. This budget shows that government is committed to maintaining a balance between the building of necessary dams, based on effective environmental and demand management studies, and a multitude of smaller schemes which must form the backbone of our community water supply programme.

What has changed is that dams are no longer built for the lucky lobbyists, as an instrument of political largesse or manipulation. If commercial interests want dams to support their investment plans, they must promote them. Where necessary my Department will help to facilitate the planning and implementation, but the cost must be borne by the user. Government will continue to pay for dams that are needed to ensure that basic needs are met, the environment protected and the requirements of our neighbours respected.

So the R335 million Injaka dam, which will assure the supply of water to nearly a million people in the Bushbuckridge area, is proceeding on target (marred only by last year's tragic accident at the bridge, which is subject to investigation).

Construction has also started on the R600 million Mutoti dam on the Luvuvhu River in the Northern Province to provide basic water supply to a quarter of a million people, to assure supplies to a further half a million and allow expanded agricultural development. Like Injaka, it will provide flows through the Kruger Park and across to Mozambique.

International/Regional

I must comment on the huge change in relationships between South Africa and its neighbours. In Southern Africa, we have determined that water should be a source, not of war but of peace and co-operation. So already, rivers like the Limpopo, Orange and Komati, once the front-line for tension and even hostilities, are now the focus for collaboration. Today we are the only country in the world that has legally prioritised the water interest of neighbouring countries with whom we share river basins to protect our own national interests in regional stability and growth. Democratic South Africa has been an active member of the SADC Water Sector and has been supportive of the Protocol on Shared Watercourses and in the coming year we hope to join our neighbours in creating several River Basin Commissions in terms of this Protocol.

South Africa's two major international water projects, Lesotho and the Komati River Development, continue to progress well.

The Lesotho project has undergone substantial transformation in all aspects and has been aligned with our new policies. International agencies such as the World Bank view it as a model, particularly in relation to its social and environmental aspects. The Komati Project, which is being developed, jointly with Swaziland is, equally, going well and the Driekoppies Dam was inaugurated in the middle of last year and Lake Matsomo is today at 90 percent of capacity. The construction of the Maguga Dam in Swaziland has commenced. These two dams will not only bring welcome development to this region but will also ensure that South Africa and Swaziland are able to meet their obligations to downstream Mozambique.

Conservation and Working for Water

I cannot talk about dams without talking, in the same breath, of the Department's Conservation Programme and Working for Water. These programmes now need no introduction to honourable members. But just five years ago the idea of saving water rather than building new dams was seen as a mere curiosity.

South Africa will only enjoy a 21st century of rising living standards if we acknowledge that we already use more than half the water available to us. We cannot continue to use more and more water as quality of life improves. It is for this reason that we argued - and budgeted - for a new programme in the Department to oversee water use by all sectors of society and promote water conservation. This is perhaps the most important organisational initiative we can take to help ensure the future of the nation.

Part of this effort is the Working for Water alien plant eradication programme. Money spent on this can, in the right circumstances, make available as much water as a dam costing double the amount. The Programme is a demonstration of the Government's commitment to poverty relief, public works employment and the job summit. By the end of last year, the Programme was employing more than 42 000 people. But it went further: it ensured that women (56%), youth (25%), the disabled, those living in rural areas, those from single-headed households, and the "poorest of the poor" has the benefits of the employment offered.

Forestry

In forestry, we have set out on an ambitious programme to achieve a green revolution in South Africa.

We support the forestry industry in its efforts to develop in South Africa, in the Southern African region and beyond. We note that, despite its small local resource base, the private South African forest industry has achieved a great deal in the international market, creating jobs and export earnings.

Even where we introduce what are seen by some as environmental impositions, we believe that these will be translated, externally, into green labels of approval. They will enable South African forest products to be sold at a premium, as environmentally sound products of sustainable management practices.

Our forest policy is based on the belief that, within a framework provided by government, the private sector can and will play a critical role in achieving the benefits, not only for itself for but for the nation, from commercial forestry. It must be accepted that, even if the land remains in the hands of the state, the provision of wood to industry is not a function of government, but for the private sector. It is these principles that have guided my colleague the Minister of Public Enterprises and myself in the restructuring of SAFCOL and my own Department's commercial forests. As you know, the invitation for offers to purchase has just been issued. Critics say that we have taken too long, but they reveal their ignorance. So, in forestry, one benchmark is the New Zealand privatisation where it took eight years to sell fewer assets. We have only been at it for two and a half years and by the end of this year the process should be complete.

Similarly, we believe that if our forests are seen as part of the community, to be enjoyed and used sensibly by all, communities will help the industry to care for the forests. We have seen this year how vulnerable forests are to the vagaries of the weather and the careless behaviour of people. The forests will only be protected if the entire community considers them to be theirs.

We will also shortly dispose of the 70 000 hectares of smaller plantations which my Department operates. This will not only bring in revenue but also create many opportunities for small and medium enterprises to enter the forest and timber business. By the end of this MTEF budgetary cycle, when we have covered the transfer costs and severance packages, Treasury will see a welcome flow of funds from the sale proceeds.

We have already seen the beneficial effects of the new National Forests Act. This, together with the National Veld and Forest Fire Act, lays firm foundations for the sustainable management of our natural forest resources. The new law which states that contracts for timber from state forest can no longer be in perpetuity ends a relic of the past whereby selected sawmillers were privileged with protected accesses to state timber for all time. Contracts covering in volume more than 50% of the affected forests have already been renegotiated.

But many other responsibilities remain for our forestry programme. Without the daily operational burden of running a big, and loss-making, business, we will be able to concentrate on those activities which are clearly those of government. We will be able to focus on the issues of equity and sustainability in rural areas where wood is an important source of energy. We cannot stand by while poor communities have to choose between slowly but inexorably destroying their environment or going to bed without cooked food. This will require placing ordinary people at the centre of our forestry effort to take ownership of woodlots in rural areas to provide fuel wood. Urban forestry and the greening of our cities, an important focus of Arbour Week, have become essential parts of our community forestry work. Finally, we will have the time and resources to tackle the conservation of our country's fast-dwindling natural forests.

On a wider front, we will continue to participate in the international debate on forest policy, sustainable forest management and trade in forest products, to ensure that South Africa's interests are protected. Budgetary provision has been made for all these activities and, by next year, there will be a substantial change in the allocations made.

Transformation

The staff of my Department has risen from 6 800 in 1994 to 26 500 this year, and the Budget from under R500 million to more than R2, 5 billion. This massive growth has placed obvious pressure on our efforts to transform the Department. This, it must be noted, is a transformation not only in relation to race and gender, but a huge task reincorporating ex-homeland staff and turning the Department from one dominated by engineers to one that reflects a far wider spread of qualifications and experience. But I am able to report progress.

Senior management of my Department, i.e. Chief Director upwards, is now 40% black as against the 100% white male figure that I inherited in 1994. A Department that had no women in senior positions now has three women at Chief Director level. And transformation is not only about formal numbers. It is also about escaping the mental shackles of the past.

Where as in 1994 the forestry function was run entirely by foresters, it is now managed by an economist. Where the management of the Department was 90% engineers (there was one lawyer and one forester), today the balance has shifted, Only 50% of senior management are engineers. The balance are economists, environmental scientists, geologists, even MBA graduates, former diplomats and urban policy specialists.

Externally, the way we work has also changed dramatically. I have already referred to the partnerships that have been developed in the agricultural sphere but the same is true in other areas. We work closely with the private sector through our Build Operate Train and Transfer programme as well as with NGOs such as Mvula Trust and Rural Development Services Network to implement the community water programme. A number of environmental NGOs assist with the conservation campaign and with our forestry programmes.

Thanks and conclusion

So, Madam Speaker, we are doing things and we are doing them differently and I would even dare to say better.

There has been much-appreciated recognition from engineering and professional bodies of my Department's efforts but, for the first time, awards also for environmental and related achievements, ranging from the World Wildlife Fund for Nature to the Green Trust. I warmly thank all the other active doers, benefactors and workers in a cause - civil society, universities, non-governmental organisations, the diplomatic community, overseas development agencies; and the portfolio committee (especially chairperson Janet Love),.for their commitment, devotion to duty and attention to substance and detail; and all senior staff in Pretoria and the wider water affairs and forestry family around the country; and my own ministry staff in Cape Town. But, overall, may I thank the millions of South Africans who provided the enthusiasm and energy and inspiration to fuel our efforts. And to the millions, too, who showed such amazing patience, who understood that water could not simply be made to flow overnight, I offer a special thank - you - Ke a leboha, Ngiyabonga, Enkosi. If batho pele means anything, it means that we must salute them for their patience and endurance.

Maybe, you will permit me a personal note. If, in the fullness of time, anyone cares to remember this Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, I would like to be viewed not as the Minister who provided taps and toilets, who planted a few trees, and opened a dam or water scheme her and there.

I would like to think that there is now a more hopeful future for all, embedded in the legacy of the past five years. We have laid the foundations. The nation will build on.

Pula! Amanzi! I thank you.

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