Hon Chair, I think hon members are going to have to listen so that you become a little wiser. [Interjections.]
Firstly, you are all agreed that there has been a drastic change in the lives of the people since water has been provided to them from 1994. None of us has a different view. Secondly, we are all agreed that there's still a lot that remains to be done. I stood on this podium and certainly alluded to those issues. I also put forward a plan that stated the changes, Mr Rodgers, which we will deliver. We will deliver on those plans, like we have delivered since 1994. [Applause.]
We have identified people in rural areas - 23 district municipalities have been prioritised - for catching up with the backlog that we are talking about. So nothing is new. There's nothing new in what we have heard here. You are just reiterating what we know and what we have planned. Thank you so much for that.
Hon Chair, you understand this problem. And thank you for really unpacking what the challenges are, as you did, that we need to deal with in municipalities.
As hon members, I think we needed to have listened to what the hon Chair was saying. That's where the solution lies; not in howling about what municipalities did and so on. At some stage, I though I was in the wrong debate, because it sounded like I was in a Cogta debate. This is a Water Affairs debate.
So, Water Affairs has told you what we are going to do. The challenges ... [Interjections.] Listen, so that you can become clever. The challenges that are remaining at municipal level are going to be resolved through this initiative that the Chair has alluded to. Finish en klaar! [And that is that!] [Interjections.]
Now, listen to this. We sit with the hon Wenger in the portfolio committee, but we certainly have never seen hon Rodgers in the portfolio committee. This department has actually made changes.
Because it's an election year, she stands on this podium to say things we have never heard about. We will go to the portfolio committee and discuss those things. That's fine. [Interjections.] Yes, but let me tell you the following. The best municipality that has performed this year, in terms of the Blue Drop programme, in terms of all improvements about water demand, is Ekurhuleni and not the Western Cape. [Applause.] Therefore, with the support by the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs ... [Interjections.] ... we work all over. We do not single out municipalities in terms of what they have delivered. We work all over, throughout the country, because we are providing water to the people.