The national government's commitment to an ongoing water strategy, aimed at supporting local government authorities to meet their water service obligations, has been welcomed in all parts of Limpopo.

Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Buyelwa Sonjica told a meeting of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) that the first objective would be to strengthen local government capacity, as this was essential to improve water delivery to communities all over the country. This approach would be a continuation of her department's range of support programmes to ensure sustainable water services.

"These programmes are outcomes-based, and are designed to assist with planning, setting tariffs, putting bylaws in place, identifying and implementing capital projects, and establishing effective institutional arrangements for service provision," Ms Sonjica said.

She added that the lessons learnt through these programmes were being documented and shared through the Water Information Network (WIN).

"We are also implementing a system to assess the capacity of authorities charged with water delivery. This would help to identify gaps and shortcomings, in terms of consolidation guidelines already laid down.

"From our assessments we will be able to report on the water services capacity and performance of all municipalities, as well as provide a provincial perspective," she said.

With 2008 as the target date for completion of the water strategy, the government was planning to establish sufficient infrastructure infrastructure within the next three years to meet the needs of the current 3.6 million people who had no access to safe water. The aim was also to improve supplies for the 5.4 million people who are more than 200 metres from a source of safe water.

"To reach our sanitation target by 2010, we will have to provide approximately 16 million people with access to a basic level of sanitation in five years", the minister explained.

However, if the government were to meet these targets, it would need "excellent" planning in each municipality, she said. A number of business and civic organisations in Limpopo this week expressed serious doubts about the planning capacity of smaller municipalities, given their track records so far.