While the Department of Water Affairs acknowledged existing programmes and their successes, there was a need for cooperation between itself and departments such as Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional affairs, Environment and Agriculture. This partnership would enable the government to meet two primary objectives namely, delivering on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG's); and ensuring that all South African had access to safe drinking water and sanitation services. In order to overcome the challenge of variable water river flow, many large storage dams had been built. Whilst some of the major projects were underway, the lack of access to clean water was still prevalent with some communities with families, schools and clinics that are without water connections. The Department of Water Affairs had made an attempt to alleviate the problem of water shortage through the construction of a number of dams. The additional budget for infrastructure project was expected to increase from R494 million in 2010/11 to R1.1 billion in 2012/13. In the previous financial year, the Department of Water Affairs was allocated an additional funding of R1 billion to install and refurbish 71 bulk water and sanitation schemes, while in 2010/11 local government had received an amount of R2.5 billion for 2012/13 to enhance access to basic services including water and sanitation.