Mashatile offers solutions to rising water debt crisis at Municipalities
Deputy President Paul Mashatile said the Department of Water and Sanitation, the National Treasury, Salga and Cogta will collaborate to develop a comprehensive water debt management plan.
Image: Phando Jikelo/African News Agency (ANA)
Deputy President Paul Mashatile said on Thursday top slicing the Equitable Share of municipalities was one of the considerations to deal with those councils battling to pay the debts owed to water boards.
Mashatile said the Portfolio Committee on water and Sanitation had recommended that the Department of Water and Sanitation, the National Treasury, Salga, and Cogta should collaborate to develop a comprehensive water debt management plan.
'This plan will implement strategies like, for instance, top slicing the Equitable Share and the municipal infrastructure grants to address rising municipal water debt.
'The National Treasury is also considering invoking Section 216 of the Constitution against defaulting municipalities, meaning their upcoming equitable share payments will be withheld while repayment agreements are negotiated with the relevant water boards,' he said.
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Mashatile was responding to DA MP Leon Basson, who wanted to know the interventions he has spearheaded to hold municipalities and provinces to account for failing to provide adequate water supply to their respective communities.
He said the Department of Water and Sanitation could withhold or stop grant funding where there was poor performance by municipalities that were implementing agents, in line with the Division of Revenue Act (DORA).
'In cases of continuous under-expenditure, funding is reallocated to other struggling municipalities, (according to Section 18 and 19 of DORA. By the end of the municipal financial year, municipalities are required to have spent the allocated funding and any unspent funds are then returned to the National Revenue Fund.'
Mashatile also said the Water Task Team was working with municipalities to deal with the water challenges and has also looked at the state of water supply in the 105 non-performing municipalities that were are unable to deliver on their mandate.
The Department of Water and Sanitation has submitted short, medium, and long-term solutions to turn around the declining water services to these struggling municipalities.
'The Water Task Team's recent meeting emphasised the need to enhance municipal service management and financial stability in the water sector by ring fencing revenue from water sales and separating water services authorities from providers through Operation Vulindela reforms.'
Mashatile stated that the Department of Water and Sanitation has strengthened its controls to ensure that funding was allocated to projects that add maximum value (to address water services needs).
'The Department of Water and Sanitation has established a specialised unit with engineers who closely monitor and oversee implementation of priority and large intervention projects. These are projects that are identified by the department as requiring more stricter oversight based on impact, risk, and past delays.'
Asked whether he has considered implementing consequence management measures for municipal managers and mayors of municipalities that repeatedly fail to meet minimum water delivery standards by holding them personally accountable for the failures, Mashatile said consequence management was key to ensure that people do their work.
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