Revamp of War on Leaks and drought intervention
The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation, Ms Machwene Semenya, welcomes the announcement by the Minister of Water and Sanitation and Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) of government’s intention to revamp the War on Leaks programme and heighten drought interventions. The decisions where taken at a joint MinMec meeting between both departments.
The War on Leaks programme, despite its earlier shortcomings, is a necessary intervention, especially due to the extent of the water loses across the value chain. “The committee has over time called for strategies to minimise water loses, which have amounted to around R7.6 billion a year of non-revenue water. We view this decision as a direct response by both Ministers to the call made by the committee, which must be commended,” Ms Semenya said.
While the committee welcomes the decision, it has called for proper planning to ensure that the programmes’ intentions are achieved. This will include plans on how the programme will be funded, which training partners will be utilised to train the youth, as well as exit strategies for trained youth. “We do not want to see a repeat of what happened with the initial phase of the programme, where resources where used without prior budgeting, leading to a negative audit opinion from the Auditor-General,” Ms Semenya emphasised.
Meanwhile, the decision to reprioritise about R600 million towards assisting in short-term drought interventions is welcomed. The decision that Cogta officials will assist and guide affected provincial governments with drought disaster declaration is also a step in the right direction to enable speedy response to drought situations. “We hope that these decisions will assist provinces in declaring disasters so that they can get the necessary funding to mitigate against the effects of the drought,” Ms Semenya said. Despite this, the committee has emphasised the need to have short-, medium- and long-term plans in place to ensure that response to drought is timely in future.
Furthermore, the committee welcomes the concern raised by MinMec on the continued use of water tankers in drought affected areas. The committee and preceding Water and Sanitation committees have previously raised concerns over the susceptibility of the practice to corruption. Ms Semenya also called for appropriate utilisation of drought funding to ensure that it achieves its intentions.
The committee will in the coming term review the implementation of these decisions taken at the MinMec meeting.
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