Media
Statement - 13th November 2008 - Mvula Trust
will hold a 15 year anniversary celebration
from 13th - 14th November 2008 at Lesedi
Cultural Village situated in Magaliesburg,
west of Pretoria. Today’s program starts
at 18h00 and will be hosted at Alpha Conference
Centre.
Ms Rejoice Mabudafhasi,
the Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs
and Tourism, is the co-founder of Mvula
Trust established in 1993 with the aim of
improving water supply to neglected rural
communities. Together with other members,
Ms Mabudafhasi solicited funding from IDT,
DBSA and EU through Kagiso Trust to embark
on a challenging, but achievable mission
to introduce sanitation of water in an endeavor
to improve the hygiene of water supplied
to disadvantaged rural communities. Ms Rejoice
Mabudafhasi has worked tirelessly over the
years and today serves as the Chairperson
of Mvula Trust Board. She will deliver a
keynote address this evening assessing Mvula
Trust’s achievements since 1993.
In 1996 Dept of Water
Affairs and Forestry acknowledged and appreciated
the importance of community-driven programmes
implemented by Mvula Trust and provided
the organization with funding to roll out
the programmes to other areas to benefit
other people. This financial injection helped
Mvula Trust to expand its operations, but
this was destabilized when water service
became the responsibility of local authority.
However, Mvula Trust was still able to implement
its programmes with donor funding and posted
noteworthy achievements such as:
•Assuming the lead role
in the development and piloting of a community
based management model for water and sanitation
service delivery.
•Mvula Trust promoted the financing of infrastructure
projects through well managed community
bank accounts
•The Water and Sanitation Service model
elevated Mvula Trust to be an important
partner to local government when Municipal
Systems Act (2001) and Municipal Structures
Act (2003) were introduced
•Mvula Trust also introduced Participation,
Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST)
which proved very successful for delivery
of healthy water. The success achieved led
to the initiative being replicated by other
organizations and municipalities throughout
the country.
•This organization also implemented small
rural and community managed water schemes
which operated with minimal assistance from
municipalities. Water is a scarce resource
in South Africa and Dept. Water Affairs
and Forestry is on a mission to revive this
water harvesting system in some parts of
Mpumalanga
For more information
and arranging interviews, please contact
Moses Rannditsheni, the Media Liaison Officer
of the Deputy Minister, at 012-310 3899/082
448 2450.
INVITATION FOR COMMENTS
ON THE DRAFT REVISED SOUTH AFRICAN MANUAL
FOR OUTDOOR ADVERTISING CONTROL (SAMOAC)
The National Department
of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT)
is inviting all interested and affected
parties to comment on the Draft Revised
SAMOAC which is available on the Department’s
website http://www.deat.gov.za
Managing outdoor advertising sufficiently
is important in order to prevent the deterioration
of the aesthetic environment which forms
an important tourism resource, contributes
to healthy psychological living environments
and increases property values. Uncontrolled
outdoor advertising may also have various
other negative impacts such as contributing
to light and sound pollution, increasing
traffic safety problems, creating occupational
health risks and displaying advertising
messages that may be indecent or prejudicial
to public morals. On the other hand, outdoor
advertisements and signs have various economic
and functional benefits and well-designed
advertising structures, such as street furniture,
may even enhance streetscapes and other
aesthetic resources.
Currently SAMOAC, which
was developed by DEAT in 1998 in cooperation
with the National Department of Transport,
forms the backbone of outdoor advertising
control in South Africa. It serves as a
national guideline document to controlling
authorities on national, provincial and
local level and also guides the outdoor
advertising industry. The main aim of SAMOAC
is to initiate and co-ordinate the control
of outdoor advertising in all parts of South
Africa. It is aimed at minimising the impacts
of outdoor advertising while maximising
the benefits of this advertising medium
at the same time.
Since 1998 the needs
of the outdoor advertising industry has
changed to a large extent, while controlling
authorities and environmental managers are
also confronted with new challenges. In
the interest of all the parties concerned
it has therefore become necessary to update
the existing version of SAMOAC.
In order to address
this problem a Draft Revised Version of
SAMOAC has been drawn up with preliminary
inputs from various parties and is now open
for comments. The closing date for comments
will be 5 December 2008
For more information go to http://www.deat.gov.za
or contact Dr Frans Jordaan:
+ More
TEN YEARS OF ENVIRONMENTAL
IMPACT ASSESSMENT CONFERENCE
13 NOVEMBER 2008 - The
Department of Environmental Affairs and
Tourism will host the Ten Years of Environmental
Impact Assessment conference in Somerset
West, Cape Town from 24 to 25 November 2008.
The conference will
provide a retrospective view of environmental
impact assessment (EIA) as a regulated tool
for environmental impact management in South
Africa since 1997 and will afford a wide
range of stakeholders the opportunity to
share their experiences with EIA.
Marthinus van Schalkwyk,
Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
will officially open the conference on Monday,
24 November 2008 at 09:00.
The conference will
also benchmark the South African EIA experience
against the international experience and
present the outcomes of a study done to
review the effectiveness and efficiency
of EIA in South Africa. Moreover the conference
will provide a platform to discuss and seek
resolutions towards the development of a
new strategy on environmental impact management
for South Africa.
Media is invited to attend the conference
