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dam-l 1000s in SA get water for first time/LS

Thousands get fresh water for first time

October 23 1999 at 03:39PM

Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Ronnie Kasrils and King Goodwill
Zwelithini officially opened phase two of the Shemula community water supply
scheme at Ingwavuma in northern KwaZulu-Natal on Saturday.

Hundreds of people attended to celebrate the project, which would bring
clean water to more than 50 000 residents in Ingwavuma and its surrounding
areas, Kasrils' spokesperson Themba Khumal said.

Local traditional leaders, ambassadors, mayors and other politicians also
joined in the ceremony.

The scheme is a Presidential Lead project under the reconstruction and
development programme.

An estimated four million people in rural areas in KwaZulu-Natal had no
access to clean water and more people were without sanitation, Kasrils said
in his opening speech.

"The government will have to spend between R4 and R6 billion over the next
few years to develop water and sanitation services infrastructure."

He said the government had established the community water supply and
sanitation investment programme as its first step towards building the
infrastructure.

About R500 million was spent in the last five years on 200
rural water and sanitation projects in the province, said Kasrils.

"When its completed in two years, these projects will bring the basic levels
of safe-drinking water to a comfortable distance from the homes of over a
million people for the first time in this province."

Although so many projects had been implemented, the government should not be
complacent, he said.

"We as leaders should facilitate service provision by getting involved in
policy development and planning," Kasrils suggested.

Zwelithini and Ingwavuma chief John Mathenjwa thanked the government for
supplying water to their people.

Kasrils later planted four trees at the local Mosvold Hospital in memory of
Umkhonto we Sizwe cadres who were killed in a shootout with security forces
at the Lebombo military base in the 1980s. - Sapa

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      Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
        and Editor, World Rivers Review
           International Rivers Network
              1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
                  Tel. (510) 848 1155   Fax (510) 848 1008
                        http://www.irn.org
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