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REPORT TO PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON DETAILED PLANS FOR THERAINWATER HARVESTINGPROGRAMME (RWHP)

15-16 MARCH 2010

  1. BACKGROUND

The war on poverty campaign, of which this Department is a key stakeholder and active participant, is currently championed by the Presidency in close collaboration with the newly established Department of Land Affairs and Rural Development.

Relevant sector departments participate in this process and are expected to effectively contribute towards poverty alleviation of the targeted groups.

The allocation of tanks is done as part of the integrated rural development strategy and as such they conductednationwide household surveys to establish needy households. Therefore, the current interventions arein alignment with a list of households that has already been compiled and which is selected according to the Presidency’s criteria.

In addition, Sections 61 and 62 of the National Water Act, allowsthe Minister to provide financial assistance through grants and subsidies for the capital cost towards the construction of storage rainwater tanks and, related rain water harvesting works for poor households in rural areas for family food production and other household economic activities.

  1. THE OVERALL OBJECTIVES OF RAIN WATER HARVESTING

­To promote the productive use of water for sustainable livelihoods, food security and shared growth;

­To promote access through the harvesting of water during dry seasons to augment the free basic water allocation of 25 litres per person per day that the municipalitiescanoffer;

­To mobilise poor households to become self reliant through rediscovering their own potential and self worth;

­To mobilise civil society for sustained development, through practical partnerships between NGOs, CBOs and municipalities;

­Training and skills development;

­To strengthen policy on multiple uses of domestic water supplies, multiple water sources, and

­The support of a resource to poor farmers; and

­Improving implementation guidelines.

Past experiences, however, have forced the programme to also consider households that have no supply of safe drinking water, and therefore, asan interim solution would benefit from this programme whilst the responsible Water Services Authority investigates a long term sustainable solution.This has led to a differentiated approach within, and across, regions.

  1. CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF BENEFICIARIES AND DISTRIBUTION OF TANKS

This programme should be understood to be a direct response to the Millennium Development Goals. Therefore although various external factors may influence its roll-outat grassroots level, the process should be consciously driven by the need to “Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger”.

The following criteria should guide the process;

-Households or institutions within presidential nodes and listed on the Presidential beneficiary list for the War on Poverty campaign intervention;

-Households or Institutions that have no access to water supply and prone to water borne diseases [including those in water stressed areas.];

-Poor Households or Institutions not in current financial year water supply plans by Municipality (PGDPs, WSDP,IDP);

-Qualifying households that are willing to participate in food gardening activities;

-Unemployed/Overall income of households income below R800 per month, and

-Households in the poor margin line, headed by vulnerable groups [women-headed households; the youth; children; groups affected by ill-health; and unemployed people].

  1. DISTRIBUTION PLAN FOR 2009/10

4.1Rainwater Harvesting for Food Security

The following is a breakdown of distribution of tanks per province provided in this current financial year (2009/10).

Table 1: Number of Households benefiting during 2009/10

Municipality / Targeted Project area as per Rural Nodes / No. of households received tanks in project area / No. of tanks to be distributed in project area / Household that received Training
Eastern Cape
Amathole / Keiskammahoek / 44 / 176 / 133
OR Tambo / Port St Johns / 44 / 176 / 128
Alfred Nzo / Gogela / 35 / 35 / 302
OR Tambo / Lusikisiki / 15 / 15 / 45
Total / 1138 / 1402 / 1608
Free State
Maluti a Phofung / Phuthaditjaba / 40 / 160 / 283
Mangaung / Thaba Nchu / 115 / 230 / 115
Letsemeng / Jacobsdal / 12 / 12 / 17
Kopanong / Springfontein / 18 / 18 / 18
Total / 185 / 420 / 433
KZN
Mhlathuze / Mzimela / 40 / 40 / 71
Ukhahlamba / Potshini / 55 / 160 / 62
Mzimkhulu / Mzimkhulu / 35 / 35 / 79
Total / 130 / 235 / 212
Limpopo
Mopani / Mawa / 35 / 35 / 141
Sekhukhuni / Sekhukhuni / 30 / 72 / 101
Vhembe / Tshikonelo / 20 / 20 / 23
Mopani / Muyexe / 100 / 100 / 100
Total / 185 / 227 / 365
Mpumalanga
Dr JS Moroka / Moretele / 40 / 160 / 91
Total / 40 / 160 / 91
North west / Greater Taung / 12 / 300 / 70
Total / 12 / 300 / 70
Northern Cape
Sol Plaatjie / Francis Baard / 100 / 100 / 100
Total / 100 / 100 / 100

4.1.1Village level participation

A village Project Steering Committee (PSC) is democratically elected locally to play a coordinating and synergizing role. The village PSCs have well-documented tasks in the project implementation process. The approved Project Implementers train the PSCs to understand their role and develop the necessary skills to ensure successful implementation including conflict resolution, leadership, etc.

The households are the primary implementing entity in the programme, therefore activities of all other actors and organizations are aimed at encouraging, supporting and enabling the household effort.

4.2Rain Water Harvesting Support to areas affected with Drought

Over and above the history and purpose of the RWH the programme will assist in alleviating the areas hit with drought.

In the above context and in response to the declarationsmade on drought disaster areas between September and November 2009 in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo,the Department allocated a total sum of R13,495m (Limpopo : R4,995m and Eastern Cape : R8,5m) for emergency interventions which include rainwater tanks, water tankering, drilling of boreholes, ground water exploration and the protection of springs. This is made available for the 2009/10 financial year and primarily to ensure access to safe drinking water in the drought affected areas.

The Eastern Cape province since allocated R5 million towards rain water tanks, R2 million for ground water investigations in Adelaide and R1,5 million for ground water investigations at Ndlambe. The Limpopo region’s request is R4,995 for a Rain Water Harvesting Project in MuyexeVillage situated in Greater Giyani Local Municipality, MopaniDistrictMunicipality (Water Service Authority). The distribution of these tanks is outlined as perAnnexure A.

This intervention precedes and compliments a parallel process that called for the affected municipalities and key stakeholders to conduct assessments in the declared areasin order to quantify the needs and the resources that would be required to bring about drought relief. The National Disaster Management Centre then consolidated all these submissions for final submission and approval. Consequently, the Inter-Ministerial Committee has approved a sum of (a) R86.857 million for the Eastern Cape Province, (b) R141.5 million for the Western Cape, and (c) R54 million for the LimpopoProvince in January 2010.

In North West the project is implemented under War on Poverty initiative spearheaded by the Premier. The areas targeted are the 2 wards in Greater Taung Local Municipality affected by abject poverty and draught stricken .About 12 tanks have been completed and 100more under construction. We hope to complete all the 300 tanks by July 2010.

  1. LESSONS LEARNT FROM IMPLEMENTATION OF PROGRAMME

­Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) activities should not be viewed only as poverty alleviation related intervention but rather as a broader Water Demand Management instrument and should be promoted and adopted at a larger scale (townships and cities) and could also have positive implications on urban storm flow management.

­Areas with no portable water prioritize drinking water over water for supplementary irrigation. This makes it impractical to specify the RWH programme for food production only.

­Annual rainfall of the area and size of the catchments should influence the size of the RWH storage.

­Areas with a high water table and igneous rocks are not suitable for underground storage (proper geological investigation)

­Training is crucial prior to the installation/construction of RWH storage however, it would exacerbate unit costs/investment per household.

­Partnership with social sector Departments should include financial commitments in particular DAFF on food production training.

­Infield rainwater harvesting techniques incorporated into the programme appears to be yielding positive results but tanks are still essential for dry spells and for drinking water requirements.

­Formulation of a RWH strategy is paramount for future implementation.

­Demand for RWH technologies is too high. DWA should find a model to foster Municipalities to incorporate RWH into their IDPs.