Water and sanitation department does not have a budget for Covid-19 intervention targets

The department of water and sanitation does not have the budget to reach the targets President Cyril Ramaphosa have set it as part of the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, its acting director-general, Mbulelo Tshangana, told parliament on Tuesday.

Tshangana said the department was unlikely to get additional funds from the national disaster management fund as the department of health would be prioritised.

However, it requested the National Treasury to approve the use of R306 million from its 2019/2020 Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant funding to implement the Covid-19 interventions. The fund was meant for specific projects and approval was obtained. These projects will now be delayed.

Tshangana was addressing a virtual joint meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation and Select Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Water and Sanitation and Human Settlements.

The committee expressed its concern that only about half of the water tanks the department had delivered have been installed.

“It is concerning that four weeks since the declaration of the disaster, only 7,689 tanks have been installed. While we welcome the extent of the work done up to now, urgency is needed to ensure that all allocated tanks are operational,” said Machwene Semenya, the chairperson of the portfolio committee, according to a statement released shortly after the meeting.

According to the statement, China Dodovu, the chairperson of the select committee, said: “We are of the view that the installation of all the allocated tanks will ensure that water provision is improved. We will require a weekly update on the installation of these tanks because the delivery of tanks alone is not enough; people must get water.”

The committees welcomed the decision by the department to focus on infrastructure development that will ensure sustainable water provision after the intervention phase.

Concerning funding, both committees are cognizant of the fact that due to the need to reprioritise the grant funding there will be delays in implementing projects initially identified for the 2020/2021 financial year.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.