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dam-l (Fwd) Township water costs & LHWP/LS




------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date sent:      	Tue, 20 Apr 1999 09:58:37 +0100
From:           	lori@irn.org (Lori Pottinger)
Subject:        	Township water costs & LHWP/LS
To:             	irn-safrica@igc.org

>Alexandra and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project:
>Poor Water Services and Rising Costs
>
>Paper presented to the
>Water for All: Policy, Finance and Institutions to Deliver our basic
>Right to Water Workshop, Edenvale, April 1999
>
>David Letsie
>
>
>Alexandra, like other townships, is expected to comply with the
>payment of rising costs for water services in spite of problems
>related to the poor quality of the water infrastructure in the
>township. Soweto civic in July 1996 marched to the Johannesburg
>local council offices against the increased water charges. They were told
>these increases were due to the need to pay for the Lesotho Highlands
>Water Project (LHWP), a project to build very large dams in Lesotho.
>
>A joint workshop was convened early 1998 attended by Soweto and
>Alexandra civics to address these various concerns. During the
>discussions of this workshop it was also established that the
>Lesotho Highland Water Project represents an expensive, ecologically
>unsound water supply project whose expansion is not needed for many
>years. A Rand Water Board official informed the workshop that according
>to their calculations the next phase, Phase 1B, was not needed for
>another two decades.
>
>Subsequently on 3 March 98 the two civic leaders submitted a claim
>to the World Bank's Inspection Panel to delay the decision of the
>World Bank Executives Directors on lending a reported US$50 million
>for the Lesotho Water Project until there has been proper
>consultation and workshops conducted on the subject. It was also
>agreed at the workshop that the Department of Water Affairs (DWAF)
>may finance such workshops. On the 19 April an intimidating letter
>was received by the two leaders from Minister Kadar Asmal which
>resulted in the formal withdrawal of the leaders from this claim on
>20 April.
>
>The letter from the minister was construed by many civic members as
>an intimidation of our leadership and the withdrawal gesture did not mean
>acceptance of the LHWP and its extension. Civic members' and township
>residents' concerns remained unaddressed. The withdrawal created problems
>within the civic movement causing a deep split on how to proceed in
>addressing our concerns.
>
>The truth of the matter is that Gauteng consumers bear the bulk of
>the LHWP costs, both for capital and recurrent expenditures.
>Millions of the province's low income citizens are already beset by
>severe problems of poverty, disease, environmental decay,
>geographical segregation and women's oppression due to the
>inadequate levels and high costs of water and sanitation services.
>
>South Africa's inequality in access to water is striking. According
>to a recent Central Statistical Services Household Survey, only 27%
>of African households have running tap water inside their residence
>and only 34% have flush toilets. By consuming less than 2% of all
>South African water, the country's black township residents together use
>less than a third of the amount used in the middle and upper class's
>swimming pools and gardens, not to mention white domestic (in house)
>consumption or massive water wastage by white farmers who have enormous
>irrigation subsidies over the years and who use 50% of South Africa's
>water. Moreover, out of every 100 drops that flow through the Gauteng
>pipes, 24 quickly leak into the ground through faulty infrastructure.
>
>Still more waste occurs in leaky communal, yard and house taps. In
>the higher elevations of Alexandra township, these problems are
>witnessed in perpetual lack of pressure. Hundreds of thousands of
>low income-income people in Alexandra and other townships have no
>immediate house or yard access to reticulated water supplied by our
>Johannesburg Municipality, and instead receive at best only communal
>access, with all the public health problems that it implies. Indeed the
>lack of available water on a universal basis means that public health
>conditions are worse, geographical segregation of low income Gauteng
>residents (from wealthier residents) is more extreme, women are
>particularly inconvenienced, and their income-generation and care-giving
>capacities are reduced, and the environment is threatened (in part
>because of the shortage of water born sanitation). Leaking communal taps
>and pipes result in streams of dirty water and pools of muddy water with
>unprotected electricity wires on the ground in the water.
>
>As a result of the expansion of the LHWP and the building of Phase
>1B, the Mohale Dam, we believe that these problems will be
>exacerbated rather than ameliorate our access, equity and quality
>problems. This could not come at worse time, as Gauteng
>Municipalities - including Johannesburg - are suffering extremely
>serious financial difficulties that are forcing them to dramatically
>increase the retail price of water and the pace of water cut-offs to low
>income consumers.
>
>As residents of Alexandra township, we are part of the low income
>consumer population who must pay a disproportionate bill for the
>LHWP. Three Alexandra residents, upon hearing that leadership had
>withdrawn its claim to the World Bank's Inspection Panel, filed a
>claim anonymously, requesting that the Inspection Panel urgently
>proceed with investigating our concerns as residents of Alexandra
>township. The requesters asked the Inspection Panel do so with the
>understanding that at the time they would like to remain anonymous
>in view of the tension within the civic caused by the minister's
>intimidating letter.
>
>The Inspection Panel visited South Africa to consider whether to
>recommend a more detailed investigation into the claim. The
>requesters questioned the Panel's independence from the World Bank
>and ability to reach an objective decision and were left with a
>sense of dissatisfaction at the answers they received. The
>Inspection Panel's findings showed that these doubts were not
>unfounded. It reported that the requesters' concerns about
>conditions on the ground are valid, but that there does not appear
>to be a connection between these conditions and the LHWP.
>
>It failed to find a connection between the requirement that Gauteng
>residents pay for the dam and the increase in the price of water to
>residents. It was not concerned with either the World Bank's failure to
>investigate whether the Mohale Dam was needed or the World Bank's
>violation of its own policies and procedures. It simply dismissed the
>problems in Gauteng as part of the legacy of apartheid. It recommended
>that the Executive Directors do not authorise a full investigation into
>the request for inspection.
>
>In addition to existing problems with water services, the building
>of the Mohale Dam will cause more harm to the residents of
>Alexandra, Gauteng and surrounding areas due to price increases for
>water and less money for projects to fix leaks and improve
>infrastructure.
>
>The Alexandra Civic has continued to debate issues around water
>services in the township and will pursue projects to address leaks
>and infrastructure. It will work with civics and organisations
>across the province and country to call for a stop to Phase 2 and all
>further phases of  the LHWP and to concentrate our energies on meeting
>peoples' basic needs whilst addressing all forms of wastage. Conserving
>water will allow us to contain demand and ensure that we don't need
>further expensive dams. George Dor 60 Isipingo Street, Bellevue East
>2198,
> South Africa
>Tel: (27) (11) 648 7000
>Email: george@sn.apc.org
>///\\\///\\\///\\\///\\\///\\\///\\\///\\\///\\\
>Steve Rothert
>International Rivers Network
>Okavango Liaison Group
>Plot 253 Moremi Road
>Private Box 2723
>Gaborone, Botswana
>Tel: 267-353-337, Fax: 267-359-337
>Email:  stever@info.bw
>///\\\///\\\///\\\///\\\///\\\///\\\///\\\///\\\
>

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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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Dianne Murray, Coordinator/Webmistress
Dam-Reservoir Working Group; Ottawa, Canada
Dam-Reservoir Impacts and Information Archive
http://www.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca/dams