Eastern Cape needs R10b a year to meet water and sanitation targets

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

Local Government MEC Mlibo Qoboshiyane says the Eastern Cape Government needs R10b annually to meet water and sanitation targets set for the 2016/2017 financial year.

This means that the current Municipal Infrastructure Grant allocation of R2.4b per annum needs to be trippled.

Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, Qoboshiyane said the additional R7.6b, which must be added into the allocations to Municipalities, would give government a shot in the arm in meeting the basic but important needs of local communities in the Eastern Cape.

He added that expenditure patterns in the last financial year had been very impressive.

Out of 43 Municipalities, 30 municipalities spent 100% of their grant.

Nine spent between 94% and 64% and only three spent between 53% and 13% of their grant.

"We have both legacy backlogs, those emanating from the apartheid government as a result of its pernicious laws and some service backlogs resulting from maintenance post 1994," Qoboshiyane said.

"We have assessed and quantified all these and we are of the view that if we don't avail the additional amount to the MIG allocations, we may have more backlogs, this time, we may also reverse the infrastructure work we have already delivered to our people and increase reverse backlogs. All these water and sanitation projects are budgeted for in the Integrated Development Plans of Municipalities throughout the province."

He said while the Eastern Cape has made significant improvements in providing clean water to communities, :we still lag behind in terms of both infrastructure legacy and service backlogs. To date, we have provided water to at least 1 453 687 (84%), with a household backlog of 276 892 (16%). This is good work because more people have access to clean water."

"Our municipalities continue to experience challenges in terms of insufficient bulk infrastructure to speed up access to clean portable water, especially in rural areas. Even though we have these challenges, the grant given to Municipalities is being used to implemnent some of these projects. The implementation rate is making welcome progress, considering the funding trends," he added.

Qoboshiyane said with regards to providing decent sanitation, "we have serviced at least 1 185 166 (68%) households, with a backlog of 553 785 (32%). As we deliver these services, our efforts are intercepted by insufficient funding and lack of absorption capacity in Municipalities to speed up the provision of Rural VIP toilets."

"Given the importance of sanitation to our people, there is a potent need for massive financial injection and building of capacity to ensure large-scale provision of VIP toilets to rural communities."

"Planning and coordination of these services is critical important and as the Department we will make sure that all sector departments and institutions of government work together so that we eliminate the duplication we have seen in some areas.
The current funding trends are only based on the Municipal Infrastructure Grant, other grants and other funding sources, although minimal, have not been factored in to have a holistic view in terms of backlog eradication," said Qoboshiyane.