Govt's R21bn water resource plan
Richard Mantu
2 September 2004
Government has approved a R21-billion National Water Resource Strategy to allow for a more efficient management of the country's water resources, create jobs and address water shortages.
The strategy, described as "a blueprint for survival", explains how the development needs of South Africa will be met in the future despite the country being one of the 30 driest countries on earth.
This financial year, the strategy focus will be to build two dams to increase the country's present and future water requirements that are estimated will be depleted by 2020.
Ultimately about 20 dams will be built as part of the strategy, said Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Buyelwa Sonjica on Wednesday after a Cabinet meeting in Cape Town.
She said two dams will be built this fiscal year. They are the Berg River Dam on the Berg River near Franschoek in the Western Cape and Oliphant Dam near the Oliphant River in Limpopo.
A
consortium of leading South African construction companies, called the Berg River Project Joint Venture, has already won the contract to construct the R500-million Berg Dam that will increase the yield of the Western Cape Water System by 18 percent.
The construction of the dam is expected to create at least 600 jobs, which Sonjica said would be part of the Expanded Public Works Programme where local unemployed youth will be trained and skilled in the construction field.
The construction of the Oliphant River Dam would start at the end of the year, the minister said.
The strategy will also ensure that about six million South Africans have access to clean water, while the backlog of about 18 million people without sanitation will be cleared by 2008, a target set by President Thabo Mbeki in his State-of-the-Nation address.
"The strategy, which conforms with our country's policies and obligations deriving from the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable
Development, also deals with the country's future water requirements, sustainable balance between water availability and needs, institutional arrangements and other matters to ensure sustainable use of this resource," said Government spokesman Joel Netshitenzhe.
Sonjica said the strategy also equipped government with the legal mechanisms to re-allocate water resources from the previously privileged to the historically disadvantaged, but also ensuring that water was allocated equitably.
It also provides government with the opportunity to use water to eradicate poverty, enabling the poor to survive and make a living, a burden that so often rests upon women in society, Sonjica added.
Source: BuaNews
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