Deputy Chairperson, I started by saying that our intervention must be understood in the context of our mandate. Our mandate is to regulate. The Constitution gives the ownership of all water supply and water works infrastructure to municipalities. As we will all appreciate, the functions that are created there are followed by funding. So, funding that goes with this function will go to municipalities because these are assets of municipalities. That is the first thing we must appreciate. What this means, then, is that we, as a department, do not have funding that would specifically target the issues that you are talking about. That funding is located within municipalities. That is the first thing.
Secondly, the Constitution itself does not make the municipalities directly accountable to the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs. This applies in the same way to the Department of Energy. For all basic services, local municipalities are accountable to the Department of Co- operative Governance and Traditional Affairs. This is the second thing that creates a problem, which then creates two problems.
Firstly, resources are directed to local government, and I have no say in this regard. The best thing I can do is to develop a programme that is going to allow me to regulate and then expose the problems that exist within those systems. The Green Drop Certification programme is actually about that. But we don't fold our arms because we are also part of this government. We see this as a collective responsibility. If there is a need for us to help with technical support, we do that. If there is a need for us to contribute some funding, we look at our contingency fund, and we do that. So, the kind of plan that you are looking for may be located in the turnaround strategy of local government, the development of which we have been a part of and have been very involved with.
I hope that some of the aspects of the turnaround strategy may lead to the amendment of the Constitution and the amendment of legislation. There will be some alignment of all of these functions so that we can work together in a way that will make a positive impact on the problems we have. The only plan we have - I am long-winded in response to a very straightforward question - is located in the Green Drop Certification programme, which is more about our regulatory function. This, then, should be taken in the context of the regulatory function.
We have already started to implement the plan. Is it helping? I would say, yes, it is beginning to help. This is because it has exposed what the problem is at that level and the extent of the problem. Are we doing anything about that? The answer is also yes. We are doing something. We are busy approaching people. I can't disclose that at this point. This would include the Treasury and the Department of Public Service and Administration because even if we are the regulator, we can't fold our arms. So, there are efforts under way. But again, in terms of the plan itself, it would be difficult for us to have an operations and maintenance plan because that doesn't fall within our function. Thank you very much. Sorry, Deputy Chair, my reply took long.