Question NW1467 to the Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation
17 December 2019 - NW1467
Basson, Ms J to ask the Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation
What (a) is the total cost of the War On Leaks programme as at the latest date for which information is available and (b) number of students have been trained for the purposes of the programme; (2) whether any students have been placed to work in the water sector; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details; (3) of the more than R7 billion worth of water losses, what amount was saved as a result of the specified programme?
Reply:
(1) (a) A total of R3 022 978 951 was spent on the War on Leaks Programme over the five (5) financial years, from 2015/16 to 2019/20
(b) A total of 5520 students have completed their training; of these 4671 are water agents and 49 are artisans
(2) From the 10 469 recruited learners for both phases of the programme, a total of 7 762 learners have been placed for experiential training whilst 1 417 learners were lost through attrition. The Department is exploring options to place the 4 671 water agents by assigning them to regional bulk infrastructure projects to facilitate water conservation. Another consideration is to place them in water services infrastructure projects for advocacy, communication and basic leak detection.
(3) Despite the placements of water agents and artisans (most of whom obtained their experiential training with the private sector) the national average Non Revenue water is 41% with an estimated value of R9.9 billion. The involvement of the Ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs as well as Water Service Authorities is essential in reducing the water losses