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Infected animals which includes livestock and domestic animals . Human activities through the disposal of contaminated faeces .
Therefore, better protection and control against this disease, data information, better treatment methods, educational awareness programmes and political will are needed to eradicate this new threat to sustainable rural livelihoods and poverty eradication.
According to the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (1991 ), apart from human life, aquatic and other life is also affected as the following indicates:
• Severe pollution causes decrease in oxygen level in water, thus fish and aquatic flora and fauna die which then rot and pollute the river further.
• Animals and cattle that drink from it also tend to become sick and die.
• Salination whereby high salt concentrations are found affect the suitability of water for irrigation purposes.
• Excessive nitrates and phosphates from human and animal wastes also increase the effect of Eutrophication, where unwanted algae and water plants grow, reducing water availability and causes undesirable tastes and odors, and possible production of carcinogenic products in water.
Thus, it can be seen that the quality of our water resources invariably affect the quality of all life, that are the users of the natural water-bodies for survival, and the rural population is thus invariably negatively affected by poor quality and polluted water bodies. It is therefore necessary that the water resources be safeguarded and that no form of untreated waste water enter the water bodies, through the insurances of political will, funding and educational awareness drives.
includes amongst others, the use of large tracts of land, mechanised equipment, improved technology and high operating costs and high profit margins. Subsistence agriculture on the other hand looks at the provision of food crops for household consumption and not resale. However, this notion of subsistence agriculture is fictional as, according to Redding (2001: 1),
there really isn't anything called subsistence agriculture in Africa today, except on a very small scale and in very limited regions .... but there really hasn't been anything that one could call subsistence agriculture for at least 100 years. Almost all farmers, whether male or female, are engaged at some level in production for the market .... (men) often farm principally for the market ... (women) farm principally for household consumption and then either market the surplus or grow a specific crop on the side to be marketed.
However, the notion of the subsistence farmer who produces only what his or her family needs, and all that the family needs, is largely a fiction.
Historically irrigation had been subsidized by the government for White farmers (Foster 1994).
Forster (1994) argues that these subsidies which were created to ensure the price of agricultural products, provided the farmer with higher profit margins and also reduced the value of water to the farmer to a level where there was little incentive to consider conservation measures. Irrigation exclusively in the hands of a particular group and at such a large scale also impacts negatively on the subsistence farmers downstream. Private tenure and riparian rights enabled White farmers to dam water and use it for irrigation purposes. Drying up of waterways, salinization and extreme low flows downstream of commercial farms were not uncommon, thereby creating poor water (and land) quality and insufficient water availability to rural communities.
Economic progress and increasing demand for water because of population growth, urbanization and industrialization puts pressure on the amount of water currently available for agricultural purposes. Complicating factors include climatic variability, skewed regional distribution and deteriorating water quality. In 1965 agricultural water utilization comprising water used for irrigation purposes and stock watering accounted for 70% of total water consumption according to the Water Research Commission (1997a). Also, in 1980 there was a decrease to 53.8% (52.2%
and 1.6 % respectively for crop and animal agriculture). The DWAF, estimates this to be 45.8%
and 1.4% respectively by the year 2010 (Water Research Commission, 1997a: 41).
With the demise of apartheid in 1994, the existing scenarios still existed until 1998 when the inception of the new National Water Act (1998), came into promulgation. However, what is important to note is that all water according to the Act belongs to the people and the state is the custodian thereof. There are no provisions for private water. However, it allows that anyone can use water from a water source for the purposes of domestic use, domestic non-commercial gardening, animal watering (excluding feedlots) which graze on allocated land and store and use runoff from a roof, as expressed in Schedule 1 of the Act, provided that all other regulatory requirements are adhered to. Schedule 1 users are deemed not to have a significant impact on water resources and therefore need not apply for a license to use, nor do they have to register their water use or pay for it (DW AF, 2000). Most rural areas fall under this category as the people use traditional methods of collecting water from rivers, streams, springs, etc. However, if water is networked and bought to standpipes or individual homes, or ifirrigation is applied, or ifwater is used for agricultural production ( commercial purposes) and not stipulated under schedule 1, then reasonable charges are placed on the consumers.
2.10 JOB CREATION AND WATER ACCESS
The government's inability to actually redistribute water access to all as well as implementing appropriate technology associated with harnessing water, treatment and storage, places the government in a position were providing taps and standpipes in communities becomes the government's key strategy for providing households with water. This strategy is supported by most households because it ensures the supply of clean water. However, the provision oftaps in poor rural communities were the majority of households have no access to secure jobs raises the critical issue of affordability. Households are unable to afford to pay for water services. However, this may soon change with the advent of the 6 000 litres free water provision, promulgated by government. This may take time to be implementable in rural areas as it is still urban and "haves"
biased. This may even lead to the dismantling of the Water Committees in the rural areas. Thus, water concerns in rural areas must be addressed within a broad-based rural development process
that focuses onjob creation and security, as according to the Hlatswayo (2000a), statistics showed a 21 % drop in household incomes for the poorest 40% of South Africans, the rural poor. This aspect of job creation is important if redistribution projects are to thrive, thus sustaining land and water projects.
Employment opportunities with respect to water services management are three fold, temporary during the construction of water schemes, semi-permanent with respect to maintenance of the scheme and permanent with the creation of Small, Medium, Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) which can be used in other rural development projects.
According to the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (1999a), billions ofrand is lost every year in South Africa to damage done by alien plants. They are problematic because they waste 7%
of our water resources, cause erosion, siltation of water sources, extinction of indigenous plantations, increase fire risk and reduce our ability to farm indigenous plants (Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, 1999a). Therefore, the Working for Water Programme was launched in 1995, in an effort to tackle the problem and create jobs especially for the rural poor. Over and above the clearing of the alien vegetation, secondary industries are created to make saleable items from wood that is cleared such as crafts and furniture, mulch, charcoal or smoke chips or secondary initiatives such as eco-tourism around the clearing project area (Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, 1999b). According to the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (1999c), the programme is aimed at social development through job creation in order to help alleviate poverty. It can be alluded to being a state initiative. Therefore the Working for Water Programme (WFWP) of the DWAF need to be viewed as options for land redistribution beneficiaries. The WFWP was launched as a national water conservation campaign, which focuses on the removal of water consuming alien vegetation (Umgeni Water, 2000). According to Umgeni Water (2000), the primary benefit of the scheme is to increase the availability of water resources and through this have created secondary benefits which include:
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Job creation in an impoverished rural context, with a total of 800 to 1000 temporary jobs sustainable for 3 to 5 years of which over half would be taken up by women.
Skills transfer through training and development, and the promotion of Small, Medium, Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) in the context of declining formal employment opportunities.
• Increase in tourism potential as a result of improvements in the area through improved ecosystem functioning, minimisation of biodiversity loss, reduction in bank erosion, reduction in intensity of fires and improvement in aesthetics.
Thus, government will have to create much more jobs for the rural poor, if rural projects are to become sustainable, and as it stands the governments GEAR ripple effect has yet not been felt by the rural communities. Government must therefore create a society of independent people rather than a "dependant society" and job creation is the means.