The opportunity that one has been given to be of service to the people of South Africa is overwhelming. To do so especially in the water and sanitation sector is also most humbling.
It is a fact that as a sector we have to operate with the understanding that our work speaks directly to whether there is an improvement in the living conditions of women and girl children.
South African society has been patriarchal in its make up for as long as we can remember. This has thus implied, wittingly or unwittingly, that women have had the responsibility of provision of the basic services I refer to here, with not even a second thought as to whether the revered SA constitution as we know it looks at all in society as being equal, before the law and in practice as intended.
The work of the water and sanitation authorities are meant to look into and address any and all disconnections that might still exist be in place as part of the residue from our previous dispensation.
Notwithstanding the progress that we have seen since the advent of our democracy, we still see parts of our society, primarily where there is a high level of especially the womenfolk, remaining unreached and unserved. This is particularly true in the rural and far-flung areas, as well as the informal settlements.
In order to address all these challenges that still remain, we have to collectively look into the current and future demand for water. What we do not want to see is the realisation of some of the predictions that South Africa will suffer serious water shortages by 2020 if serious interventions are not put in place.
These interventions must be married to positive changes in attitude to this scarce resource. These practices will assist to avail more water in order to ensure more access by all.
The narrow gap between water supply and water demand, water losses (technical and behavioural patterns), infrastructure failures and the loss of skilled engineers are some of the key concerns to institutions, primarily the Department of Water and Sanitation, as we look at bettering the lives of women.
It is also a fact that the building and utilising of single-purpose dams was and continues to be a sore point for women and girl-children. It is a painful experience to realise during visits to communities the harsh realities of the legacy of the past as per these practices.
This has led the Ministry and Department of Water and Sanitation to take a radical decision to convert these single-purpose dams to multi-purpose dams. We believe that it can never be correct for the services of this infrastructure to be so unequally utilised, but more especially for the benefit of the few.
All of what we plan and ultimately do cannot happen without the necessary policy review. The policy review that we started and continue with identified some twelve (12 policy positions which are guiding the current legislative review process.
For the sake of this piece, I wish to raise three of the policy positions which directly impact on how we can achieve the important ideal of a better life for our womenfolk.
The first is the “use-it of lose-it” principle with regard to water use. The implication of this is that water which is not being productively and beneficially used is held by a minority group in the country.
There is a need to apply the use-it or lose-it principle to free allocable water before compulsory licensing is instituted in an area.
This prioritises social and economic equity in the re-allocation of water. In terms of the new legislation, the minister will have discretion to determine priority considerations for reallocation of water.
Further, decision making in the reallocation of water will have equity as the primary consideration. Ultimately, priority will be given to water use authorisation applications that meet the equity requirement, as provided in the regulatory instruments.
Multiple water use approach in planning infrastructure is the second position. As I indicated earlier, much of the existing water resources infrastructure was planned for a specific sector’s needs, to the exclusion of other water users.
Communities and rural households have been excluded in the planning of some of this raw water infrastructure, resulting in raw water infrastructure and distribution networks by-passing these communities.
In future, the planning of bulk water systems, all communities and water users affected by the infrastructure development in an area, will have to be considered.
We have a growing population which is mainly female, a great deal of urbanization, and the economy’s demands that compound the country’s current freshwater resource, i.e. ground water, rivers and dams.South Africa’s water resources are still strained and the drought of the past two to three years is not yet broken.
Thirdly, it's everyone’s responsibility to conserve the limited water resources we have as a country. Every drop does count and we can all make a difference by saving one drop at a time.