Abstract

PIP: Providing basic water and sanitation facilities to meet the population's basic needs is one of the South African government's Reconstruction and Development Program's (RDP) priority concerns. The lack of basic services such as water supply and sanitation reflects the prevailing poverty and lack of development. When the White Paper on Water Supply and Sanitation was published in November 1994, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) committed itself to meeting the population's basic water and sanitation needs. To that end, DWAF will collaborate with both departments of the national government and nongovernmental organizations. All effort will be made to involve communities in the decision-making process, through the development and maintenance of community service provision projects, and complemented by a sustained empowerment process through education and training. This paper introduces others on community water and the provision of sanitation. Public health and epidemiology play an important role in realizing the provision of water to meet everyone's health and functional needs.