Finance minister Pravin Gordhan’ s budget allocations for water infrastructure take into account the needs of droughtaffected areas and the need to address water losses.
Photographs by Wikimedia Commons alleviate the municipality’ s water shortfall and benefit the area’ s 52 050 households. The Wolmaransstad Wastewater Treatment Works Project in the North West Province will also be completed over the medium term, at a total cost of R154-million.
“ To improve households’ access to water and sanitation, the Department of Water and Sanitation will provide funding and institutional support to municipalities and implementing agents to complete 234 small water and wastewater services projects.
“ The Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority and the Lesotho Highlands Development Agency are implementing phase 2 of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. Design and procurement for the construction of the Polihali Dam is under way. The dam will help meet growing demand and further augment the Vaal River system by 2.9 billion cubic metres per year. The Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority will operate and maintain the existing delivery tunnel in South Africa, while the Lesotho Highlands Development Agency will implement the project in Lesotho,” says the treasury.
However, KPMG has been critical of government’ s approach to water infrastructure, saying that while President Jacob Zuma briefly touched on the water infrastructure in his State of the Nation Address, he did not provide detail on how the issue will be approached.
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