Chairperson, let me start by explaining that the reason for our request is that we are tabling our budget speech in the National Assembly in the next hour. We really appreciate being allowed the opportunity to respond first. I thank other colleagues as well.
Question No 33, as asked by the hon Jacobs, is in regard to measures that we are taking in order to address the water situation in our communities. I am going to go straight to the response now and it is as follows. Yes, indeed, our department has put in place a number of measures in order to address situations where communities do not have access to water from nearby dams in their areas. We do have those measures, and today we will be speaking to a new initiative that relates to ensuring that where communities have even been drinking the same water as their animals, that situation is eradicated completely. We will be announcing those additional measures this afternoon.
In the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape our colleagues there in local government, in the department of co-operative governance and traditional Affairs, Cogta, have already started working on a programme of that nature. It entails, amongst other things, looking at ensuring that we use the various springs that there are there, at small measures like digging for water where it is necessary, at rivers next door, and at the issue of package plans, which we have already started working on in the Limpopo area.
We are going to be using the Accelerated Community Infrastructure Programme Fund, ACIP Fund, as well as the R7 billion that has been allocated this year for water purposes from the municipal infrastructure grant, MIG, working with our colleagues in Cogta and municipalities. We will also bring on board funds that we have in the regional bulk infrastructure grant, RBIG, in order to close this gap. Those are some of the issues that we are dealing with.
With regard to farmers, Question 33(a), and whether we are developing a comprehensive study to ensure that the single-purpose dams are utilised for purposes of farming and irrigation, as well as drinking, we would like to respond by saying that the department is undertaking a study to identify any community that can be serviced from the single-purpose and underutilised dams that are owned by our government and any institution. We have already found 14 such dams, for instance the Taung Dam. We have already started working on a regional infrastructure bulk scheme on that single-purpose dam. The main objective is to ensure that we do not use dams just for recreation purposes or any other use that is single purpose, but that people are able to use them in other ways as well. On some of the dams we are going to implement hydro schemes.
We are currently assessing the water utilisation of these dams, identifying the infrastructure projects that need appropriate scoping and securing access to water for the purposes of agriculture, as well as drinking for our people. Discussions and negotiations are already taking place with the relevant water services authorities in this regard.
We are also giving priority to the identification of funding allocations, and I referred to RBIG earlier on. Based on the interim findings on the comprehensive single-purpose dams, the department will endeavour to initiate additional infrastructure projects. The intention is that, as soon as these potential additional projects are identified, priority will be given to allocating money from these funds, working with the National Treasury and Cogta. We are also developing a reactive procedure to deal with any application for water by a community living near a dam that is built on private land. This proactive approach of addressing community water service needs from dams built on private land can be very difficult and time-consuming at times, and we should acknowledge that. It is estimated that there are thousands of farm and mine dams that are built on private land. The approach that has been adopted by the department is that if a community or water services authority has identified the need or potential for providing water from such dams to adjoining communities, the department will assist the relevant water services authority to gain access to such a dam, as we know that through appropriation we can deal with this, but it is quite often very difficult. In this regard the department will also soon be developing a process and procedure on how to address dealing with this matter in a very systematic manner.
As I conclude, I would like to say that it should be noted that the department is experiencing two major challenges or constraints in dealing with the issue of making water available to communities without water services from adjacent dams. These challenges are, firstly, that the department does not have access to funds to allocate to the development of reticulation and distribution schemes. Secondly, in the event of the dams being on private land, the process of gaining access to such water may be lengthy and challenging. It is not to say that we are not going to be dealing with this matter. I have already said that we will be dealing with the first challenge, and this Friday we are meeting with my colleague, the Minister for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, to see how we can use the funds from the MIG funding allocated specifically for water, which is R7 billion. With regard to the second challenge, we will get into innovative mechanisms to assist the communities in those areas.
In short, I am saying that we are not just relaxed. We see this as a critical problem that requires us to act and ensure that our communities have access to water for both domestic and economic use. I thank you.
Chairperson, let me thank the Minister for this response. Every day you see people toyi-toying and fighting, and there are roadblocks. People are doing as they please. I want to understand this from the Minister. When can she give us timeframes regarding when this water will come to the affected residents in the townships? Thank you very much.
Firstly, may I take this opportunity to educate the hon member a bit. The Department of Water and Environmental Affairs at the national level has, legally and otherwise, full powers to work on what we call water resources - dams, bulk infrastructure and all such matters - while reticulation is actually a function of municipalities. There is a separate Act in that regard, and it is called the Water Services Act. In that regard there are water services authorities who deal with reticulation, taking water from the resources to the communities in townships and so on. These are two separate functions.
It is not possible for me, this afternoon, to stand in front of you and perhaps tell a lie and say that this is the time, the date and month, when we will come back with the reticulation process in order particularly to ensure that we stop those toyi-toying.
However, we have not taken a back seat, irrespective of the fact that we are not municipalities. We have taken a decision in the department that Rome cannot burn while we are saying that this is somebody else's function! We have taken it upon ourselves to say that we will intervene, and we will support and work with municipalities.
These measures that I have been talking about now are partly to address those issues. We are taking funds from the MIG, restructuring, and working with Cogta at the national level to deliberately intervene where the challenges are. This is because we have seen that, if we sit back, there are instances where some of the municipalities do not address those issues. We cannot sit back forever; we believe that we have to intervene.
The measures that I am announcing are in the amount of about R550 million this year, and it is not possible to intervene in all the areas in this particular year. One area that we are intervening in is the refurbishment of our infrastructure. Our reticulation infrastructure in the reticulated areas is very old and there are some leakages. In some instances water is not reaching the people because of the leakages, and this, of course, is due to the shabby nature of our infrastructure. Indeed, it is a very complex, difficult and challenging area, but it is not insurmountable. We are addressing the matter - we started immediately. Once again, it is not possible for me to say that we will complete it by next year or on a specific date. Thank you.
Chairperson, I want to follow up on Mr Jacobs's question, and check with the Minister in this regard. With her having made the announcement, will she make sure of the following, and I will use the Free State as an example? Will water come from the Lesotho Highlands and go to Gauteng - jump the Free State and go to Gauteng - leaving the people in the Free State with no water at all?
Chairperson, in South Africa we manage what is called the Orange-Senqu River Commission, Orasecom, arrangements. This is at the Southern African Development Community, SADC, regional level and the continental level. In other words, it is joint management by countries in the SADC region, particularly of our three rivers that we share - the Orange River, the Vaal River and the Olifants River in Limpopo. In that management, in whatever we do in South Africa and whatever they do in Botswana it is agreed never to have a negative impact on what people do in Namibia, for instance. There is a sharing of the water in the rivers in an agreed and scientifically calculated manner. The Lesotho Highlands Water Project is part of ensuring that we augment our waters in those rivers, particularly the Orange and the Vaal River. That augmentation takes water even up to Namibia and Botswana. That is at the broader level. I thought I should say that as an introduction so that we know how this international or neighbourly management of water is happening.
Linked to that is that we agreed that it should not happen that, for instance, a pipeline passed a community by and ran to a power station! Unfortunately, this thing used to happen in the past - that was the way planning was done. It was done in such a manner that we rushed to build a power station and supply water to the power station, while passing communities by. In this instance, we have a resolution that was taken by the ruling party that water provision should be integrated in every way; not just for drinking, but also for the economic use of those communities.
The first project that was started along those lines was the De Hoop project. If you look at the De Hoop project, you will see it is a fully integrated project, a dam that they started building after the resolution was taken. With agriculture and domestic use in all those communities in mind, once the De Hoop Dam is finished, there will be reticulation via the pipeline to the communities of Sekhukhune.
The same applies to Lesotho. When we augment the water in our rivers, we will be giving water to the communities of the Free State. Let me also say this. The reality of the matter, colleagues, is that the communities of the Free State do not necessarily run short of water. And "short of water" means from the resource point of view. Three quarters of the water catchment of our country is actually in the Free State, in the Vaal catchment.
What is happening is that there are terrible problems relating to infrastructure. These things that I am talking about, unrefurbished dysfunctional infrastructure, are actually relevant and they are found more in the Free State. Those are the issues that we are attending to. Once that infrastructure is serviced properly, we can reach the people.
Please forgive me, Chairperson - let me take a minute to illustrate this. There is infrastructure that was built in Ficksburg - the Ficksburg that we are talking about today. Connections for those pipes, the new infrastructure, were put in, and they brought this matter to my office. Where the connection took place there were no holes to allow the water to flow through. This is how the infrastructure was built. Once we found out that the water could not reach the people because there were no holes to allow water to get into the pipelines, we rebuilt the pipelines.
We almost elevated another dam wall, but because the infrastructure has now been refurbished and corrected, we no longer need to spend money on doing that project. We no longer need to raise that wall, and we are attending to this infrastructure at the municipal level, at the resource level. Thank you.
Chairperson, I thank the Minister. It seems there are a number of water boards in the country, and there are also a number of agencies that work with the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs. I would like to know: What are the responsibilities of these boards, as well as the agencies, with regard to the provision of water? Thank you.
Chairperson, the responsibility of these boards is to help provide water, and facilitate water provision in municipalities in the rural areas. What they do is that they purify water in some instances. They buy raw water and purify it, and sell it to the municipalities at a very low rate, with no profit intended at all.
They are also responsible for services in particular areas. They are even responsible for the installation of infrastructure and support, and sometimes manage the infrastructure that I am talking about on behalf of municipalities, whether it be the waste water treatment plant or the water treatment plant. So it is a range of functions that we have given them.
The overall objective is to ensure that we have an agency, at least a fully fledged organisation, that we can use to support the various municipalities in a particular area.
However, as we speak, there are two of our water boards that are not in such good shape, and those are unfortunately in the poorest of the poor areas. But we are revamping and reorganising ourselves. This afternoon we are announcing in our budget speech that we have new mechanisms for ensuring that we have wall-to-wall provision of services through the boards.
Each board is going to have a footprint in a province. For instance, the Eastern Cape will possibly be covered by one water board, which will allow it to benefit in regard to revenue generation and to be better placed to serve the communities. In some instances you find a water board serving people in a small locality, where 90% of the people are indigent, with no income or a low income, and that board cannot then plough money back. The two boards I am referring to are operating in such places. We believe that if we spread them across, they will then use money that is acquired from cities, towns and so on to augment their income. One thing that we are doing is looking at a programme where we will get a board like Rand Water to get a broader footprint in a larger place and cross-subsidise the poorest of the poor areas for services to be provided. I thank you.
Amounts owed by Eastern Cape municipalities for water supplied to them
44. Mr W F Faber (DA) asked the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs:
(1) Whether any municipalities in the Eastern Cape owe any outstanding amounts for water that is being supplied by (a) other municipalities and/or (b) any water service authorities; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, (i) which municipalities, (ii) to which entities do they owe funds, (iii) what are the reasons for these outstanding accounts and (iv) for how long have these accounts been outstanding in each case;
(2) whether the institutions which are providing this water to municipalities are allowed to terminate the supply if the accounts are not paid; if not, what steps can be taken to recover the outstanding debt; if so, what is the relevant legislation that is applicable in this regard?