[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
DAM-L FREE WATER IS FEASIBLE: KASRILS/LS (fwd)
----- Forwarded message from Lori Pottinger -----
From owner-irn-safrica@netvista.net Mon Oct 16 12:33:47 2000
Return-Path: <owner-irn-safrica@netvista.net>
Received: from DaVinci.NetVista.net (mjdomo@mail.netvista.net [206.170.46.10])
by lox.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca (8.8.7/8.8.8) with ESMTP id MAA14471
for <dianne@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca>; Mon, 16 Oct 2000 12:33:31 -0400 (EDT)
Received: [by DaVinci.NetVista.net (8.10.0/8.8.8) id e9GGO9o00907
for irn-safrica-list; Mon, 16 Oct 2000 09:24:09 -0700 (PDT)
(envelope-from owner-irn-safrica@netvista.net)]
Received: [from [192.168.1.215] ([205.178.127.217])
by DaVinci.NetVista.net (8.10.0/8.8.8) with SMTP id e9GGO3F00809
for <irn-safrica@netvista.net>; Mon, 16 Oct 2000 09:24:04 -0700 (PDT)
(envelope-from lori@irn.org)]
X-Sender: lori@pop3.netvista.net
Message-Id: <v02140b05b610eaa45e51@[192.168.1.215]>
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 09:26:18 -0800
To: irn-safrica@netvista.net
From: lori@irn.org (Lori Pottinger)
Subject: FREE WATER IS FEASIBLE: KASRILS/LS
Sender: owner-irn-safrica@netvista.net
Precedence: bulk
FREE WATER IS FEASIBLE: KASRILS
PRETORIA 13 October 2000 Sapa
A government committee has found that it would be feasible to provide water
free of charge to poor communities, Water and Forestry Minister Ronnie
Kasrils said on Friday.
Kasrils said in a statement that the inter-ministerial group, comprising
himself and the ministers of finance and provincial and local government was
formed to investigate the provision of free basic water to the poor.
A study by the committee found it would be "feasible and viable" to provide
free water once schemes were established.
Funding for free water would come from local government and by recovering
costs from those could pay.
In many areas, particularly rural districts, the poor do not pay at present
for water.
"The problem is that when we try to implement cost recovery, many of the
poor cannot pay."
Kasrils said health problems, such as the current cholera outbreak in
KwaZulu-Natal, arose when the poor were excluded from water supplies.
He said his visits to rural areas had highlighted the fact that many people
were so desperately poor that they could afford what might seem to ordinary
people a very small price for water.
He said rural women complained that should they have to pay a R10 per month
for water, their families would have less to eat.
They therefore chose to buy food instead and took their chances in searching
for river or ground water, he said.
"It is our moral duty to make a basic amount of safe water available to all
South Africans, or at least to those who cannot afford to pay for it.
Kasrils said the cholera outbreak in KwaZulu-Natal would not have happened
if all South Africans had access to safe drinking water.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
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
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to majordomo@netvista.net
with no subject and the following text in the body of the message
"unsubscribe irn-safrica".
----- End of forwarded message from Lori Pottinger -----