Hon Chairperson, hon Minister Mme [Mrs] Edna Molewa, hon members, distinguished guests who are here with us today, water and the environment are catalysts for economic growth and development. Our role as a Ministry is to ensure that our country has enough water and that the environment is protected in order to meet our country's developmental needs.
Service delivery is the business of all spheres of government. It is for that reason that the Ministry, in collaboration with sector partners in all spheres of government, has identified water and environmental challenges and hot-spot areas affecting water and the environment. We are finalising our turnaround strategies and plan of action to address the prioritised challenges.
We have met with the premiers, MECs and mayors and agreed to establish task teams composed of senior officials from our Ministry, affected national and provincial departments and municipalities, in order to ensure that the plan of action is implemented and that they report directly to the provincial government and to our Ministry. As a Ministry, we have adopted a hands-on approach to support both the provincial and local governments to ensure that water is provided to our people and also that the environment is protected.
We are mobilising community leaders to come on board and participate actively in the management of water and the environment. Their indigenous knowledge will help us to achieve the sustainability of water and the environment. Water and the environment are everybody's business. Allow me to give you an overview of our programmes.
We are finalising our local government support plans, which will be monitored by premiers, MECs, mayors and our Ministry. Those plans seek to address major challenges to water and the environment. The collaboration with the provincial and local governments improved service delivery as we have managed to do interventions which gave us positive results. We have managed to unblock water challenges, for instance in Setlagole Village, in the North West, by constructing a borehole water scheme, and unblock water challenges in Mukula Village in Limpopo, to mention a few instances.
One of the key challenges in the provision of water services is the ageing infrastructure and inadequate technical skills. Through our regional bulk programme, we are making remarkable progress in addressing the infrastructure challenge. Since the inception of the regional bulk programme, we have created 7 221 jobs, while 1 210 job opportunities are projected for this current financial year. We are also finalising the formulation of response teams to provide hands-on support to municipalities as a way of addressing technical capacity.
We are hard at work on waste management for a healthy South Africa. The improper operation of waste disposal sites and inadequate refuse collection keep us awake at night; we do not sleep. We are supporting municipalities in the development of integrated waste management plans, which will be incorporated into the integrated development plans, IDPs, in order to ensure proper resourcing of the provision of waste services. In the current financial year, we will train 450 landfill site managers. We have a lot of illegal landfill sites.
We are also supporting municipalities to ensure that the refuse collection service is provided adequately to all citizens of our country. We will strengthen the existing initiatives of Buyisa-e-Bag, to create more job opportunities and establish entrepreneurships, so that we realise our vision: "Waste is Wealth".
We acknowledge that the issue of medical waste needs a multipronged approach, which will involve the Department of Health and other sector stakeholders. We will develop a joint programme of action to address this challenge.
In response to building a healthy South Africa, we will ensure that the air our people breathe does not pose any danger to their health and wellbeing. We have identified the hot spots in our country, which include the Vaal Triangle and the Highveld as priority areas, and we are also doing monitoring. The Waterberg will soon be declared a priority area. The department continues to roll out the Clean Fires Campaign, Basa Njengo Magogo, which we have just launched to reduce pollution.
We are implementing a social responsibility programme that has created 16 840 jobs and accredited training. We have enrolled 480 youths in the Environmental Youth Service programme. This year, we will create 17 154 work opportunities and enrol 600 young people in our Environmental Youth Service programme.
Last year, we launched the Buyisela programme, which has an integrated approach that includes greening, waste management, recycling, water conservation and the rehabilitation of degraded land. Ten municipalities have been identified for this pilot phase. This programme is being implemented in Mthatha, Nkandla, Mantsopa, Bushbuckridge, Butterworth and Thohoyandou. It will be implemented in the remaining municipalities this year. We are saying mayibuye indawo yethu [bring our environment back].
We are implementing an accelerated community infrastructure programme, to which we have allocated R83 million, in Cape Town, eThekwini, the City of Johannesburg and the Nelson Mandela Metro to address water conservation and demand-management challenges. The intervention focuses on leak repairs, pressure management, education and awareness, and the use of effluents to offset demand for potable water.
We launched the War on Leaks project in Mogale City, which is aimed at educating water users about the importance of repairing water leaks. The youth educate the communities on fixing leaking taps and toilets, thus creating job opportunities and skills development. Through this we are targeting the youth. This project has created 146 job opportunities, which exposed the youths involved to various forms of skills training in Gauteng, the Free State, the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape. In KwaZulu-Natal, 81 unemployed graduates have been trained in technical skills and employed by the Department of Water Affairs and by municipalities.
The Ministry has prioritised the following programmes to empower women, young people and people with disabilities. In terms of the Adopt a River programme, we are targeting women in that they have to look after the rivers, because our rivers are polluted and have deteriorated. They identify the source of pollution and also look at water as a source of food security. They do not just clean the rivers, but also use the water as a source of food security by having gardens and other things that they develop. They have been trained and have acquired skills in water quality, among other skills. With these skills, we empower them to be water ambassadors in Limpopo, the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, the Western Cape and the Free State, which were the pilot provinces. We will expand the programme to include the North West, Mpumalanga, the Northern Cape and Gauteng.
In 2010, we held the Women and Environment Conference. The conference was also used to focus on enhancing the role of South African women in leveraging economic opportunities from ecosystems. A national women and environment forum was composed, which represented all the provinces. We have also hosted the Women in Water Awards for women who have developed comprehensive projects, proposing solutions to water challenges.
I am also proud to announce that later this year we will host a conference of African women in water and the environment, in the build-up towards our 17th Conference of the Parties, COP 17. This platform will enable women across the continent to share best practices and experiences in the area of water and environment management.
The 2020 Vision Programme for youth development is one of our key education initiatives, which aims to educate learners from Grades R to 12 about water resource management and water conservation. This is the brainchild of the late Prof Kader Asmal. We will be holding a conference this week, starting this Saturday, 25 June to 28 June. We are going to dedicate this conference to him. This project has educational materials, which have been developed by us and the Department of Basic Education. We are going to pilot it in 135 schools.
Regarding the youth conference that is starting this Saturday, we have also invited the Southern African Development Community, SADC, region's youth. We are proud of their achievements. We need more young minds to fill the skills gap that we are experiencing in both the environment and water sectors, and also because we have international waters. We must begin to share ideas.
Annually, our learners participate in the Stockholm Junior Water Prize. It gives me great joy to say that Motebele Moshodi received the Stockholm Junior Water Prize in 2005. Our learners go every year to participate, that is those who win nationally. We also award bursaries to learners to encourage the youth to see water as a career choice. We need engineers, scientists, hydrologists, and others.
We have started with our climate change public awareness campaign, spearheaded by Indalo Yethu, aimed at creating awareness about the impact of climate change. The theme is "Save Tomorrow, Today". Regarding water conservation, we have a partnership with Eskom in a water and energy-saving campaign, with the theme "Know Your Water".
Through our rural development programme, we have provided 5 280 rainwater- harvesting tanks. Currently, an amount of R11 million is invested in the construction of our main pipeline for the Blocusso Trust Project. There are many projects to mention, but my time has been too short. I cannot really cover two departments in 10 minutes. Thank you. [Applause.]