[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

dam-l Orange River Study/LS

>
>WATER NOT A POLITICAL TOOL TO BE USED TO MOVE INDUSTRY: STUDY
>BLOEMFONTEIN March 24 1998 Sapa
>
>     Water is not a political tool to be used to stimulate development
>     in a particular area, a major water planning study says in a
>     report released this week.
>
>     The Orange River Replanning Study, which is nearing completion,
>     aims to ensure that maximum national benefit is derived from every
>     cubic metre of water used.
>
>     The study will soon be submitted to the Orrs steering committee,
>     from where recommendations will be made to Minister of Water
>     Affairs and Forestry Kader Asmal.
>
>     A report released this week summarises responses to questions and
>     concerns raised in public meetings in Bloemfontein, Cradock,
>     Kimberley and Upington in October 1997.
>
>     The report points out that it is not policy for water to be used
>     as a tool to move industry. Past efforts to decentralise
>     development were not successful in South Africa, it says.
>
>     Even if it could, Orrs would not change the relative situation of
>     industry and agriculture - wherever they were located they would
>     still need water.
>
>     Orrs would not dictate to farmers what they should grow in certain
>     areas, but its findings pointed to certain realities. It found,
>     for instance, that farmers who irrigated low-value crops would not
>     be able to survive when there were increases in the price of water
>     in future.
>
>     Orrs identified opportunities for irrigation for disadvantaged
>     people. The Lower Fish River was potentially suitable for that
>     purpose, it said, and other possible new irrigation areas were
>     identified along the Orange River in the Lower Orange region.
>
>     The report points out that, even after the first phase of the
>     Lesotho Highlands Water Project and without building any further
>     dams, there would still be surplus water in the Orange River over
>     and above what was being used at present.
>
>     However, if the current way of using water continues, all water in
>     South Africa will be fully allocated by 2030, the report says.
>
>     There was already not enough water in the Eastern Cape, which
>     received Orange River water via the Orange-Fish tunnel.
>
>     The report says domestic water should be supplied from the most
>     efficient source, which might not be the Orange River. The policy
>     was that 25 litres per person per day was a basic human need and
>     right. If consumers wished to use more water, they would have to
>     pay the full price of that water.
>
>     The work done by Orrs showed it was not possible to predict with
>     confidence what the projected growth in industrial and urban
>     demand would be over the medium and long term. The growth figures
>     over the past 10 years were not stable enough, considering the
>     massive social, political and other changes the country had
>     undergone in that time.
>
>     Orrs was not a study of people's water rights. It would not
>     recommend whose rights should be taken away and whose not, as
>     there were other forums to deliberate water rights.
>
To: irn-safrica@igc.apc.org
X-Sender: lori@pop.igc.apc.org

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