Section 27(1)(b) of the Constitution provides that everyone has the right to have access to sufficient water. As such government has embarked on a number of strategic policies and projects aimed at ensuring that all South Africans, whether rural or urban, enjoy this right to water. Accordingly, budget allocations for the Department have been crafted to cater for this constitutional mandate. The 2011 Estimates of National Expenditure (ENE) reported that the spending focus for the Department over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) would be on infrastructure and bulk distribution in order to provide a reliable supply of water. It added that since the 2007/08 financial year, spending had grown from R4.8 billion to R8.2 billion in the 2010/11 financial year. This increase was driven by spending on the development of bulk water infrastructure including the construction of the De Hoop Dam and ancillary infrastructure such as the distribution pipelines, and the rehabilitation and repair of existing bulk infrastructure. Spending over the MTEF was also expected to increase from R8.2 billion to R10.9 billion at an average rate of 9.9 per cent. This included the additional allocations of R1 billion in 2011/12, R1.3 billion in 2012/12 and R984.2 million in 2013/14 to be spent as follows over the