Johnathan Paoli
Water and Sanitation minister Pemmy Majodina has fingered local municipalities and not her department as the target for residential frustration in the increasing water challenges faced by communities.
Majodina briefed the media on Monday on her department’s plans and priorities for the 2024/2025 year and said the provision of water services is the responsibility of municipalities and not the national department.
She said in her first month as minister, her department was inundated with more than 400 calls regarding problematic water services and that ignorance of the public regarding water matters required engaging.
“It will be a priority for us to correct this misunderstanding and to encourage communities and community leaders to hold their municipalities accountable for the delivery of water and sanitation services. We will undertake community outreach programmes to educate communities to understand these roles and responsibilities,” Majodina said.
The minister said despite the constitutional and legal responsibilities of municipalities, the department did set up a call centre to receive complaints and queries about all aspects of water and sanitation in the country.
She said the municipal debt to water boards has now risen to R21.3 billion and that her department was implementing measures to strengthen and standardise debt collection processes and establish incentives for municipalities to pay their bills.
Majodina said despite the government providing grants to municipalities to address infrastructure backlogs, the water sector needed to be self-sustainable through revenues from the sale of water.
“The water boards do not receive money from the fiscus and this debt is threatening their ongoing financial viability, as well as the financial viability of the whole sector,” she said.
The minister said some of the department’s highest priorities was to work with other departments, especially the Finance Ministry, and Ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, in order to find a solution to the problem.
Majodina admitted to several challenges facing the country when it came to the provision of water, including not having access to clean water, or to safe or dignified sanitation, and frequent water supply disruptions and sewage spillages.
She updated the public on the presentation of the department’s Budget Vote Policy Statement, appearances before various parliamentary committees, as well as facilitating engagements with the seven water boards in terms of their plans, current projects and challenges facing the provision of water.
The minister proudly proclaimed that the department has built 18 dams since 1994, and there were 15 major national water resource infrastructure projects to the value of over R100 billion in varying stages of completion across the country.
“Many of these projects were delayed for a long period of time, but they have now all been unblocked, and it will be a priority for us to ensure that they are all implemented expeditiously,” Majodina says.
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