The Department of Water and Sanitation has procured 41 000 water tanks in two days to provide water to South Africans living in rural areas and informal settlements.
In her National Command Council address, this afternoon, Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Lindiwe Sisulu said 2 342 water tanks were procured for the Eastern Cape.
Additionally, 1 700 were procured for the Free State and over 12 000 for Gauteng.
4 274 water tanks will be sent to Kwa-Zulu Natal and 1 200 will go to Limpopo.
600 water tanks will still be sourced for Mpumalanga and the North West, respectively.
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“The totality of what we have put on the ground is 41 000 tanks in two days.
“We hope that if we go on at this rate we will be able to cover all those areas which are badly in need of water,” the minister said.
To cut the process of procurement the department went straight to the manufacturers and distributers who indicated that they have 400 000 tanks available for the department.
“We are also going to ask the communities where we place the water tanks to allocate one person per day to look after the water tanks so that we are sure there are no leakages,” Sisulu said.
She added that the person asked to watch the tanks will be able to let the department know when the tanks run dry.
“This will give us a forewarning so that we are able to direct our tankers to those areas,” she said.
The minister also indicated that she was responsible for two difficult departments, water and sanitation and human settlements.
“In human settlements, our biggest problem is the densification in informal settlements.
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“We keep talking about social distancing.
“Social distancing does not deal with the situation we have in informal settlements.
“This translates into a middle-class solution until we are able to persuade people in informal settlements that we need to come in and assist them to de-densify the area,” she said.
She added that certain areas have been identified by the department as needing intervention where the department will be able to provide residents with alternative accommodation.
In Gauteng, this will be Diepsloot, and the department will be in communication with the residents of these areas to place them in transitional housing.
