Government-funded programmes and services for vulnerable - Unicef

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Department of Water Affairs ➔ Municipalities adopt different means tests to determine eligibility of families, based on their local indigent policy. For some, the means test is R2 000 per household and for others R800 per household. Each consumer who is selected for poverty relief gets a credit on their water account, which would typically be sufficient to cover the charge for the poverty relief amount (maximum of 6 kl per month). Notes: (i) and (ii) Free Basic Water – Implementation Strategy Document, 2001 Some key policy and service delivery gaps Insufficient coverage of water and sanitation services The statistics provided in the Child Gauge 2009/2010 (Hall & Marera 2010: 130) on children’s access to water and sanitation reveal that the free water policy is inadequate to meet the rights of children to basic water and sanitation. In 2008, nearly 7 million children lived in households without access to clean drinking water on site. A higher proportion of children (36%) than adults (27%) lived in households without water on site. There was little improvement in children’s access to water on site between 2002 and 2008. Although children’s access to adequate sanitation facilities increased over the same period of time, from 47 per cent to 61 per cent, in 2008 nearly 7 million children still used unventilated pit latrines, buckets or open land, despite the government’s goal of providing adequate sanitation to all and eradicating the bucket system (Hall & Marera 2010: 131). Free basic water programme The free basic water programme does not prioritise households with children (especially young children), breastfeeding women or households with people living with HIV/AIDS. The governing policy has not been developed around the water needs specific to these vulnerable groups. The maximum free 6 000 litres is in fact not sufficient to meet the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS. 95 95 Affidavit in the High Court of South Africa Witwatersrand Local Division, Mazibuko v City of Johannesburg, Case No. 06/13865, www.law.wits.ac.za. 191
Government-funded programmes and services for vulnerable children in SA The policy is therefore inadequate to meet the water needs of vulnerable children and their families. This is aggravated by the fact that local governments are only obliged to implement the policy in accordance with their means. This has resulted in some local authorities not providing the full 6 000 litres, but less, leaving vulnerable children and their families at an even greater disadvantage. For example, the South African Human Rights Commission records that a 2005 Department of Provincial and Local Government survey revealed that 49 out of 256 municipalities were not implementing the policy at all. In addition, some municipalities, such as the Ilembe district municipality, were only providing 3 000 litres per family per month. Municipalities cited insufficient funds as the reason for not providing 6 000 litres per family per month, and argued that the equitable shares allocated to them for service delivery were not enough (SAHRC 2006). No free basic sanitation policy On the sanitation front, the government has set as a goal the provision of adequate sanitation to all and the elimination of the bucket system. 96 However, this goal has not yet translated into an implementable free basic sanitation policy. This is a critical policy gap that needs urgent attention, given that: good sanitation is essential for safe and healthy childhoods. Poor sanitation compromises children’s health, safety and nutritional status, and is associated with diarrhoea, cholera, malaria, bilharzias, eye infections and skin disease. The use of open land and the bucket toilets also impacts on water quality and contributes to the spread of disease. (Hall & Marera 2010: 131) In 2009, 6.6 per cent of South African households had no toilet facilities at all or still used the bucket system. This national average once again hides the provincial variables: the figure is much higher in the Eastern Cape (18.9%), Limpopo (8.8%), Northern Cape (8.7%) and the Free State (7.5%) (Stats SA 2010a: 31). 96 White Paper on Basic Household Sanitation, 2001 192
Page 1 and 2:
Government-funded programmes and se
Page 3 and 4:
Commissioned by the Principal Inves
Page 5 and 6:
Chapter 4 Department of Health Intr
Page 7 and 8:
Chapter 11 Department of Police, So
Page 9 and 10:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The US National In
Page 11 and 12:
PCR PEP PMTCT SAPS SASSA TB UNCRC U
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
CHAPTER 2 Department of Home Affair
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
Page 53 and 54:
Page 55 and 56:
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
CHAPTER 4 Department of Health Intr
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
CHAPTER 5 Department of Basic Educa
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152: Government-funded programmes and se
Page 187 and 188: CHAPTER 6 Department of Labour Intr
Page 201: Government-funded programmes and se
Page 207 and 208: CHAPTER 10 Department of Human Sett
Page 253 and 254:
Page 255 and 256:
Page 257 and 258:
show all

Government-funded programmes and services for vulnerable - Unicef

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?