Water is essential to our health, our livelihoods and our ecosystems. Water is also a crucial resource for diamond mining, much of which takes place in water-scarce areas in southern Africa. While 95% of the population in Botswana have access to safe and clean drinking water, only 41% have access to basic sanitation. These figures are even lower for Namibia, where 80% of the population have access to safe drinking water and only 30% have access to basic sanitation. In South Africa these figures are 87% and 67% respectively. The family of companies aims to ensure sustained access to water resources for our operations does not adversely affect the livelihoods of local communities where we work. It is for both operational and human reasons that water management has been identified as a strategic environmental initiative. Water management frameworks are being developed by technical steering groups at our DBCM and Debswana operations. They include elements on water conservation and performance management, best practice guidelines, communication and awareness. The frameworks will be used at DBCM and Debswana operations and assist us to develop a coherent water management strategy to enhance access and use of water as well as prevent pollution across the family of companies. A family of companies peer group and set of targets will be established in 2007 to achieve this aim. In 2005, we used 81.3 million m of water at our mining operations. This is a 3.6% increase on 2004 and is in line with the increase in material treated due to additional diamond production. Of this figure 30% (24.6 million m) was potable water (including naturally occurring potable water), 50% (40.4 million m) was non-potable water and 20% (16.3 million m) was recycled water. This figure excludes the seawater used by our west coast operations and vessels.
	Vessels have desalination plants onboard to purify seawater for domestic use by onboard employees. In 2005 we used 62.6 million m of seawater. This is a 15% decline on the 74.1 million m used in 2004. Where appropriate and in partnership with governments, our operating companies also seek to provide water access to communities. Jwaneng recently undertook to provide local communities with their own boreholes and skills to operate them. Water sourced from these boreholes is also sold to the government at a reduced rate of P0.74 per m. It is then bought back by Debswana at the national rate of P1.85 per m. Debswana aims to achieve a cumulative 50% reduction of raw water use across all its mines by 2008. The first seven months of 2006 indicate Jwaneng is on target to achieve its 50% reduction goal as a result of process optimisation.