Barry Streek The government’s ability to deliver on its local government election promise of 6E000 litres of free water to poor people every month is being questioned by the Rural Development Services Network (RDSN). RDSN has been researching the provision of 50 litres a person a day for two years. It says: “About 40E000 children die in South Africa every year due to water-borne diseases, yet the government has cut the water budget by 21,6% in 1999 and a further 3,6% in the 2000/2001 budget.” It views the African National Congress’s election manifesto that promises 6 000 litres a household as a “carrot that is being dangled before the poverty-stricken electorate”.
RDSN questions how the government will employ the strategy of providing free water through a system of local cross- subsidisation and how it intends providing water to the most rural areas. “Water may be free, but the set-up of the infrastructure is not. Who pays for this, and will this be a further excuse by government for the imminent delays in this pie-in-the-sky election promise?”