EASTERN CAPE’S NCOP DELEGATIONS PUTS DELIVERY OF WATER UNDER CLOSE SCRUTINY
The Eastern Cape’s permanent delegates to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) kick started the week-long Provincial Week yesterday in the province by receiving briefings from the Premier of the province, MECs of human settlements and transport, mayors of OR Tambo, Alfred Nzo and Sarah Baartman district municipalities and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality on a wide range of service delivery issues.
The delegation is in the province as part of the NCOP’s Provincial Week programme. Presenting the objectives of the programme, the Whip of the delegation, Ms Nokuzola Ndongeni, said the 2023 Provincial Week focuses on the state of municipal social infrastructure in South Africa under the theme: “Building viable Municipal Infrastructure for effective delivery of services to communities.”
Ms Ndongeni emphasized that an issue that must be considered during engagements is how municipalities begin to factor in the impact of climate change on their infrastructure planning and design – especially roads. Regarding water, sanitation and bulk infrastructure, reliability of water services, and interventions to reduce water supply disruptions, need a broader discussion.
The Acting Premier of the province, Ms Siphokazi Lusithi who is the MEC for Human Settlements painted a provincial picture on the areas that the delegation is going visit in the province. The delegation heard that the province is prone to disasters that include flooding which destroys road infrastructure among other things.
The province presented the state of roads, road projects that have been rolled out and that are in construction. According to the MEC for Transport, the province currently requires R4 billion just for maintenance.
The delegation which is in two groups for the purposes of reaching as many service delivery sites as possible in the province heard that no meaningful interventions have been made in the province to address the shortage of water. The delegation heard that the province is still in the same situation of “dry water taps” as it was a few years ago. Each water service provider from the national Department of Water and Sanitation and the municipalities presented ideas in the form of plans.
As the district municipalities presented to the delegation their situations regarding water shortages, presenting the state of Ingquza Hill Local Municipality in the OR Tambo District Municipality, the municipality’s Executive Mayor told the delegation that the situation regarding water shortage in their municipality is worsening. The Executive Mayor told the delegation that the municipality requires R21 billion just for the eradication of the old water backlog.
The delegation heard that the province Eastern has spent R2.1 billion on infrastructure projects of the total amount of R9.355 billion. To date there are only two projects that have been approved for the 2023/24 through the Budget Facility Infrastructure. The criteria for the approval of projects is very stringent and includes a rigorous independent appraisal of the technical merits of the business plans wherein most of the ECPG BFI submissions were found wanting based on these technicalities.
Source: Parliament of South Africa