STEVEN MANN, Cape Town | Tuesday
IT could take up to 20 years before the government realises its goal of providing all South Africans with access to clean water, Water Affairs Minister Ronnie Kasrils has admitted.
Kasrils told a media briefing in Parliament while running water had been laid on for six million South Africans since 1994 at a cost of R3,7bn, another eight million people were still without access to running water.
Government had previously estimated South Africans would have access to clean water within seven years, but the population had since grown by two million.
Kasrils said the time frame had also shifted as a result of severe budget cuts.
“The previous estimates for delivery time were based on an expenditure of R1bn annually in 1997/98,” he said. “The reality is that in the current financial year only R500m has been made available for delivery of basic water.”
Maintaining existing water supplies were also gobbling up resources, with an estimated 10% of projects experiencing problems.
“It’s one thing to put the infrastructure in place. It’s another thing to keep the taps running,” Kasrils said.
He announced that Philip Fourie, chief executive of the Amatole Water Board in the Eastern Cape had been suspended, pending an investigation into allegations of fraud, involving public assets worth R1,6bn, but declined to provide further details.