Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu. Photo: DWS/Twitter
Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu says his department is hard at work to counter countrywide water shortages and assist at the local government level despite challenges.
Mchunu on Friday tabled in parliament his department’s budget for the financial year 2022-2023.
He said that several municipalities were dysfunctional, lacked engineering expertise, and were operating with obsolete infrastructure, a huge stumbling block in the delivery of services.
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This, as water shortages and sewage spillages continue to plague South Africa’s urban and rural communities.
Mchunu has conceded that these challenges have triggered him and his team of senior officials to crisscross the country in a bid to restore stability to troubled municipalities.
Mchunu said the department was allocated a combined budget of R111.256 billion over the medium-term expenditure framework, consisting of allocations of R34.976 billion, R37.331 billion and R38.958 billion in the 2022-23 and 2024-25 financial years, respectively.
Budget highlights include:
Painting a bleak state for most municipalities on water and sanitation delivery, Mchunu said: “More than 99% of all municipalities in the country have conceded that they don’t have capacity, have aging infrastructure which leaks more than 40% of water, and don’t have Workplace bullying threat to turn things around.
“They have told us that they don’t have capacity to spend responsibly and accurately.
“The department has all along been focusing on bulk water services and not realising that you cannot have life from your head up to the middle of your body, with your feet not functional – hoping that you will be regarded as effective.
“As a department, we have been focusing on any other thing, but not reticulation – relegating that function to municipalities.
“Now, to a large extent, municipalities are dysfunctional.
“The only logical way is to intervene in a pragmatic and practical manner by working with municipalities.”
Citing Mangaung, he said the department identified six key projects in the Free State capital, “that will make it walk again – something which is not supposed to be our duty”.
Said Mchunu: “Once we bring bulk water, we would ordinarily leave. But we realised that we could not do so.
“We are beginning to do things in a unified chain – from bulk water to reticulation.
“We have also identified leaking pipes, so that we don’t merely supply water to leak over 40%.
“Their systems are also dysfunctional, because they don’t know how much water they give out – also not knowing who is paying and not paying.
“Municipalities don’t know how much water leaks.
“We are rehabilitating their systems from our office – auditing their pipes,” the minister told the journalists.
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