R400 million allocated to disaster budget, says Van Rooyen

Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Des van Rooyen yesterday gave insight into this month’s 2018-19 budget when he announced a total annual national budget of only R400 million for disaster management.

Van Rooyen, speaking at parliament on behalf of the interministerial task team on drought and water scarcity, noted the budget for 2016/17 was R514 million.

He was speaking at the announcement of the entire Cape being declared a disaster zone, soon to be followed by the rest of SA.

“This process will be finalised on or before February 14. This will legally assign the responsibility to the national executive to coordinate the disaster,” he said.

“Just to kick-start one desalination project might require from the fiscus about R400 million. It suggests that we will be forced to make representations to National Treasury, which we have done because climate change effects require of us to be proactive.”

With President Jacob Zuma’s December promise of free higher education to the poor, Van Rooyen’s announcement may indicate how tight the budget is likely to be.

“We hope as the minister gives his budget speech, he might give an indication of the provision being made for some of these challenges because the figures I have cited now, quite obviously, are not sufficient to deal with the magnitude of the problem we are encountering.”

With a national dam capacity of 59.6% as of Wednesday, Van Rooyen said the drought had become a “huge” challenge and a number of measures had been implemented.

These included drilling boreholes across the country, water restrictions, the promotion of drought-resistant cultivars and desalination plants.

“We’ll have to do more with less to address this problem,” Van Rooyen said, noting some infrastructure facilities were old and being asked to carry a load they were never designed to.

Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane sounded warning bells when she said there would have to be a reprioritisation of resources in the coming months.

“These water licences that are within our system, where are the dams that are related to them and how best can we actually access them? Because what is of importance is to appreciate that national government is the custodian of water in South Africa,” she said.

“We do understand the property rights guaranteed in the constitution but this national asset, when it is needed for use and to deal with inequality, poverty and unemployment, you can’t not use what is within your powers as government.”

– news@citizen.co.za

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