"To halve the number of people without access to clean water by 2015, the most important thing is that we must have program of action to implement the agreed targets. Rich countries should also inject more funds," said Kasrils in an exclusive interview with Xinhua after attending a tree planting ceremony to mark the start of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).

Kasrils said that developed countries had promised at the 1992 Rio Summit that they would spend 0.7 percent of their annual GDPs aiding the poor countries, but now most of them have only spent 0.25 percent with the United States even less at 0.2 percent.

"Of course, poor countries can't fully rely on foreign aids, but they truly need to be assisted since they are too poor to implement programs of sustainable development alone," he noted.

Since 1994 when South Africa ended the apartheid, it has made a great progress in providing clean water and proper sanitation to the poor people, especially those in the rural areas.

In 1994, there were 14 million people living in rural areas without water service provision. These people, mostly women, had to walk a long distance daily to fetch muddy water, sometimes polluted water in rivers and streams, Kasrils said.

Seven years later, the government managed to enable seven million of these people to gain access to clean water, he said. This cost the government 4.5 billions rand (about US$500 million), he said.

"Besides, we also got US$50 million of donation from the EU (European Union) in the past three years. And the EU has promised to provide another US$50 million in the next three years," he said.

"In seven more years, we will reach the target of serving every South African with clean piped water," he added.

Water crisis is one of the five issues that will dominate the upcoming WSSD, or Earth Summit, expected to be held in Johannesburg from Aug. 26 to Sept. 4.

United Nations Environment Program chief Klaus Toepfer said that 1.1 billion people still lack access to safe drinking water and 2.4 billion lack access to adequate sanitation.

Concerning the sanitation problem, Kasrils said that the government will continue to provide subsidies and technical assistance to help rural people build toilets and acquire proper sanitations.

When asked about the water situation in the whole Africa, Kasrils seemed to be very concerned.

"The situation is very serious because 60 percent people in Africa, over 400 million, don't have access to clean water," he said, adding that many children die every day from water-related diseases.

According to the UN, more than 2.2 million people in the developing countries, most of whom are children, die each year from diseases associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.

(Xinhua News Agency August 25, 2002)