South Africa : community water and environmental sanitation for South Africa's unserved : supporting the transition : report of the UNICEF-Coordinated UN Inter-Agency water and environmental sanitation mission to South Africa, 30 October - 10 November 199

This report focuses on community-based water and sanitation provision in rural and urban fringe areas. The mission's objectives were to examine the status of water and sanitation provision to low-income people in South Africa, to share with similar UN experiences in other countries, and to discuss with government roles for UN and other external support agencies in this field. The report gives background information on demography, reconstruction, local government as well as a de break down by race of water supply and sanitation services showing that blacks in informal settlements, townships and rural areas lack basic services. The bulk of the report sets out the main observations of the mission, the challenges faced Africa, and insights, rather than recommendations, to guide the government in facing the challenge of disparities between races and between rural and urban areas in basic social services, particularly water supply and sanitation. It focuses conventional strategies for community water and sanitation provision including such topics as basin management; institutional transformation for community management; the need for good sanitation/hygiene programmes to accompany water project organizational and financial self-reliance; financial sustainability through community participation and ownership; income-generating programmes; capacity building through local training, organization and economic development; and the need t policy into effective area-based programmes. The report also suggests key programme areas such as training, technical assistance, public awareness advocacy and research also suggesting agencies best suited to help support these programmes in to outline where the external community could support the Government of South Africa in ensuring widespread provision of water and sanitation services to the country's rural and urban poor. The report concludes with a clear summary of the key challenges observed by the mission and its insights on ways of dealing with these challenges.