- While South Africa’s ministers and politicians cost us a fortune, they cannot resolve SA’s water challenges.
- They may understand the state of the disaster but can’t do too much about it, says Dr Ferrial Adam, WaterCAN’s Executive Manager.
The Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS 2024) illustrates how widespread and unmanaged government dysfunction affects delivery.
This is one of the most illuminating sentences in the MTBPS, found in the Water and Sanitation vote: “No mega regional bulk infrastructure project phases were completed in the first half of the year because of Eskom electricity connections not being available and poor contractor performance.”
These are the sort of issues that we expected the expanded and expensive cabinet to resolve (see OUTA’s comments on the increase in the cost to the fiscus of the parliamentarians’ remuneration here).
Here are some of the concerns WaterCAN identified in the MTBPS 2024:
- The Department of Water and Sanitation planned to complete four mega, six large, and four small regional bulk infrastructure project phases in 2024/25 but according to the MTBPS it has only finished one large project phase so far. Some projects are now expected to be completed later in the year.
- Of the 112 small water services infrastructure grant projects planned, 30 have been completed.
- The department aimed to assess 1,004 wastewater systems for green drop report compliance, but none have been assessed yet as this was scheduled for the third quarter.
- No blue drop assessments are planned for 2024/25; they are scheduled for next year, as noted in the February budget.
- The MTBPS cuts R225 million from the department’s budget, affecting the Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant to Drakenstein municipality, aligning spending with revised plans for a sanitation project. However, R243 million of the DWS budget is being reallocated to the Integrated Vaal River pollution remediation project.
- Municipal debt continues to hinder progress, with many unable or unwilling to pay for services. While 72 municipalities applied for debt relief related to Eskom, with 70 applications totalling R55.2 billion approved, no similar relief exists for debts to water boards, leaving some on the brink of bankruptcy.
- The MTBPS notes that a human settlements white paper will address water boards’ and municipal services’ sustainability.
According to the MTBPS, “electricity, water, sanitation and waste management services are in long-term decline due to underinvestment in maintenance, rehabilitation and expansion at the municipal level.” It also states that government is now planning “detailed reforms” including a requirement that municipalities produce separate financial statements for each trading service, and “make the financial relationship between the service and the municipality explicit”. The MTBPS promises a performance-based conditional grant to trigger these changes in 2025/26.
Dr Adam welcomes this, calling it a step in the right direction. Using the City of Johannesburg as an example, she explains that there are separate accounts for entities like Johannesburg Water and City Power. It is, however, unclear how much of the equitable share grant for basic services is passed on to these entities or how their surpluses are used. “Transparency on this will be welcome.”
Read more about WaterCAN here
Source: OUTA
