Question NW390 to the Minister of Water and Sanitation
20 March 2024 - NW390
Buthelezi, Ms SA to ask the Minister of Water and Sanitation
Given that he has recently warned municipalities against the over-reliance on water tankers and boreholes as a means of water provision to communities and considering that many rural communities throughout the Republic lack the infrastructure needed for the supply of piped water, what plans has his department put in place to capacitate municipalities with phasing out the use of water tankers for a more sustained method, such as piped water?
Reply:
The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) provides support to municipalities through conditional grants; the Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant (RBIG) and Water Services Infrastructure Grant (WSIG). The purpose of the grants is to support municipalities to develop their water and sanitation infrastructure and to address backlogs of infrastructure, thus improving access to water services.
The Department has allocated about R44 billion over the MTEF period for water and sanitation projects to various municipalities in all the province. This includes R7 billion allocated to Water Boards for the implementation of strategic projects. This caters for 107 RBIG projects under implementation in the 2023/24 financial year for which R14 billion has been allocated to 259 municipalities. 6.7 million households are envisaged to benefit from this investment. A further R15.6 billion and R14.3 billion is planned for the 24/25 and 25/26 financial years respectively.
The Department is also investing in robust planning activities for water and sanitation projects. This is to ensure that the most viable and sustainable options are identified to address the needs. Planning is based on life cycle costing and environmental, practicality, security and climate change considerations. There are 107 water and sanitation projects currently subjected to rigorous departmental planning. In line with this, the Department is also in the process to develop Provincial Bulk Master Plans that will identify Water Resource shortages in critical areas and the development of pipeline of projects to ensure the availability of resources to all affected areas.
Groundwater is an essential as part of the water resource mix and country’s natural resources that must be used to effectively supply a reliable resource to communities in South Africa. The Department has developed a Standard Operating Procedure for Groundwater Resource Development for Community Water Supply Projects which are in the process of being rolled out to all Provinces to ensure that groundwater is appropriately developed as a source.
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