Thank you very much and good afternoon Deputy Speaker, hon President, hon Deputy President and colleagues in this august House. In the build-up to the centenary celebrations of the founding of the African National Congress, the values of human dignity, equality and freedom, aimed at creating a better life for all our people, remain central pillars of our government.
I would like to echo the sentiments of the many colleagues who stood at this podium and participated in this debate when they congratulated our President on a wonderful speech. Indeed, that provides leadership for all of us in this country.
As the President has indicated in his state of the nation address, we are an important country, a very important host for major world events, including the Conference on Climate Change, popularly known as COP and this time COP 17, which will be hosted by South Africa.
As a country we look forward to welcoming 185 world nations to our shores, and also working with the entire world to facilitate the climate change negotiations to the best of our ability.
Arising from the lessons that we drew from the recent successful hosting of the 2010 Fifa World Cup, and also working with our counterparts at a continental level, the South African collective team effort undertakes even at this early stage, from a logistic point of view, to deliver yet another successful world event.
We will also work hard with all parties to COP 17 and contribute immensely to the success of that conference in terms of substance. We have already kick-started the process of informal consultations, which will allow us to consider very carefully the proposals and suggestions from all parties including business and civil society.
The effects of climate change are real and they are here with us. We therefore would like to make use of this opportunity to call upon the developed world to ensure that they heed the call from developing countries and small island states, who, in most cases and more often than not, bear the brunt of climate change effects.
This call is for the developed countries to increase their commitment towards reducing emissions, while at the same time helping the developing countries with the necessary resources to implement adaptation measures. We are all very grateful to those countries, institutions and companies who have already approached South Africa and offered support towards ensuring a successful COP 17 and COP/MOP 7.
It is important that developed countries of the world recognise that while they have built their economies and introduced technologies overtime to allow their productive capacity to grow, the developing world also needs to follow in their footsteps. This has to be done with adequate funding made available for mitigation, and more importantly, adaptation through the implementation of green economy technologies and also addressing reforestation and alternative energy sources, amongst many other things.
This is imperative given that some of the developing countries hardly have adequate budgets to carry even minimum national functions and therefore find it difficult and quite impossible to respond to climate change issues. Leadership of the developed countries must begin to be felt in a very positive manner.
While we appreciate the commitments made towards the Green Fund establishment and setting up the Adaptation Fund Committee, we believe that a lot can and must still be done. This includes an increase, in particular, of the developed countries' commitment targets for emission reduction. And we are all aware that we need a total commitment collectively to attain temperatures that are below two degrees Celsius, which is what the whole world needs. We need the developing world to also respond positively just in as much as the developed world must respond.
The creation of a better life for all is potentially threatened by the impact of natural disasters and a loss of our biodiversity resulting from climate change. During the past seven weeks, our country has experienced severe rainfall and floods due to the La Nia phenomenon which is a wet cycle that leads to flooding.
According to scientific information that was released by the South African Weather Services, scientists indicated that this rainfall pattern will persist in some parts of our country for a number of weeks to come.
We need to accept that those who are still sceptical must be persuaded to change their minds and understand that climate change is here and its devastating effects are already beginning to be felt. Over the past 150 years, there has been a vast increase in the use of fossil fuel, oil, coal and the harvesting of wood from forests.
When we burn oil and coal, we release carbon that rises into the atmosphere, but unlike many other gases, it does not disintegrate, it remains in the upper atmosphere, in particular, for many generations. Carbon creates a kind of blanket in the upper atmosphere that traps the heat, and in turn it is directed back to the earth and results in what is called global warming.
The older generation will recall that there used to be a much clearer transition from summer to winter. We now get rainfalls that are unusual, and at very unusual times of the year. Where the veld and forest fires burn, this happens with greater ferocity and can cause more destruction that ever before.
We also have seen Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita - and I don't know why all these hurricanes are named after women; also floods in Pakistan, Chile, China, Australia and the Philippines and devastating forest fires in California and Australia. [Interjections.] There is never a Hurricane Piet!
Our own country has also been affected. The fires in the Western Cape over the past decade have been more prevalent and damaging than ever before. The rooibos farmers here in the Western Cape have had to change the way they cultivate tea because of changes in weather patterns. Also, the communities living along the Limpopo River Basin in Limpopo province have experienced a high degree of flooding and destruction on their farms.
Changes in the ocean temperatures and currents have also affected our marine resources and there has been a southward shift of some of the fish stocks as well as the rock lobster. Changes in climate patterns may over time cause major damage to the way we farm, the way that we fish and also our people in the urban and rural areas as well as infrastructure.
There is a risk also that malaria and other waterborne diseases could spread to new areas and put many more people at risk. The effects of climate change continue to impact negatively on our food security. The recent food prices are mainly a result of negative changes in farming and climate change.
As we celebrate the centenary of the African National Congress, we have a responsibility to ensure that our economy, our people and our environmental resources are resilient to the impact of climate change and our economy becomes resilient as we reduce carbon emissions and other gases that lead to increasing global temperatures.
It is, therefore, important to phase in transformation of our energy means, as per the plan that was provided by the department of energy and discussed country wide. As we forge ahead with the implementation of the New Growth Path; the Industrial Policy Action Plan; the new integrated energy renewal programme, with specific reference to innovation and cleaner technology; the Green Economy Plan, as well as the recently tabled National Climate Response Green Paper, the main objective of which is to determine a clear policy directive towards mitigating and adaptation to climate change. We remain confident that our country is on the right path under the leadership of President Jacob Zuma. Our government has a clear plan of action towards a green economy and that consists of seven areas which deal with issues of green buildings and the built environment; sustainable transport and infrastructure; clean energy and energy infrastructure; resource conservation and management; sustainable waste management services; agriculture food production and forestry; and water management.
In each one of these focus areas, we are aware - as was indicated by Colleague Patel earlier on - that clear plans exist and projects have been identified. These are projects that will be job-creating in nature.
We will also ensure that we implement the green economy projects as I said earlier on to ensure that working towards COP 17 we will be in a position to showcase some of the very important projects and some of the very important businesses that are actually emission-reduction-related. Amongst other things, there is wind energy and biomass energy, that is, waste generated energy. As a matter of fact, the Durban Metro is actually generating energy from waste as we speak.
The Solar Park in the Northern Cape and secondary industries flowing from solar heating will also form part of our job creation projects and entrepreneurial development. Locally manufactured solar heating systems require participation by our fellow countrymen and women. As they are beginning to be rolled out, let us all be there in our numbers.
Maitlhomo a rona, re le Lefapha la Metsi le Merero ya Tikologo, ke gore motho mongwe le mongwe a nne le metsi a a phepa jaaka Poresidente a buile. Peelo ya rona ke ngwaga wa 2014. Re tla araba ditshwaelo tse di dirilweng ke Poresidente go ya kwa KwaZulu-Natala, Limpopo le Kapa Botlhaba jaaka re laetswe ke Poresidente. Lenaneo la rona la go aga mafaratlhatlha le tla bo le sekametse bogolo setona mo diporofeseng tse ke di kaileng, mme go sa reye gore diporofense tse dingwe ga di kitla di lebelelwa. (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)
[Our goal as the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs is for every person to have clean water, as the President has already mentioned. Our target is the year 2014. We will address suggestions made by the President to visit KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Eastern Cape. Our programme of building infrastructure will be based mostly on the above mentioned provinces, and I am not saying other provinces will not be looked into.]
In Limpopo province, the emphasis will be on ensuring that water from the completed dams, such as the Nandoni and Flag Boshielo Dams, actually reaches the communities through the construction and installation of bulk supply pipelines. If I may just explain this, these two dams which I am talking about have been completed. The water is up to the brim, but cannot be taken to the people. Nobody uses that water because of shortcomings within the water services system. We agreed with the Premier of Limpopo when we were in Limpopo two weeks ago, that we are going to work jointly and integrate our work so that when dams are built, infrastructure that leads to the provision of water to the people is actually provided.
I think we have the support of the Minister of Finance in that regard. The EIA within the area of Nwamitwa Dam will also be completed in a month from now. Fortunately, wearing two hats I can say, "Wake up on this side, you EIA people!"
We have been assured that at least by next month this EIA will have been completed. What is going to happen is that we are going to continue with the design programme. I am told, by the way, that it takes about a year and a half to design a dam - I don't know why, but we still have to get into the nitty-gritty.
We still have to get the EIA and the funding for that dam so the Nwamitwa dam is also in the pipeline. The pipe is not long, it is short, and will contain water!
The other areas of focus will be those where there are huge backlogs, such as KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, as I have said. In KwaZulu-Natal there are projects that are already under construction.
If I may just respond to the issues to augment the President's input: Along the Mooi-Mgeni Supply Scheme the Spring Grove dam, which actually is intended to improve the water supply for the eThekwini and uMgungundlovu areas, is currently under construction. Then there is the Middledrift dam, which supplies water to one of the most water scarce areas in KwaZulu- Natal.
The IFP mayor, however, says no, a big no, to the development of this project. This is the opposite to what hon Zondi told us when he stood at this podium. We are going to see the mayor to massage his ego, because we want water for our people.
I am going to start here in the house with the leader, and ask him nicely so that this project may continue. So please, let's not stand at this podium and say the ANC is doing this and that when, in fact, it is those mayors who do not want to sign off the agreements; we will do that. In parallel with this process ... [Interjections.]