City’s Water and Sanitation Department proposes R503,7 m direct spend to informal settlements

The City of Cape Town’s proposed budget for the 2015/16 year once again underscores our commitment to redress and to improving the lives of our poorer residents. This is particularly clear in the allocation made for water and sanitation services.

As a caring city that ensures service delivery to our most vulnerable residents, the Water and Sanitation Department plans to spend R503,7 million directly on services to informal settlements in the upcoming 2015/16 financial year.

This money will be spent on, amongst others:

-  increasing the toilet and tap provisions

-  maintenance of sanitation and water facilities

-  cleaning and emptying of alternative sanitation

-  the janitorial programme

-  provision of water to informal settlements, which is unlimited and free

-  removal of waste water for full flush toilets

This proposed direct budget does not include the bulk water, reticulation and wastewater infrastructure necessary to deliver the water to our informal settlements or the removal of wastewater and the treatment thereafter. For example, the Zandvliet Wastewater Treatment Works almost exclusively services Khayelitsha, Delft and Blue Downs, which all host a substantial number of informal settlements with full flush toilets.

Simply put, the R503,7 million only includes primary costs to informal settlements, and not secondary costs. Thus, it does not include support services charges and enhancements, repairs or new bulk infrastructure that services informal settlements. 

This proposed budget is a display of the City’s ongoing commitment to its residents in informal settlements. In the current year, we have a budget of R499 million for water and sanitation directly to informal settlements. Of this, we had spent 90% of our capital budget by the end of March 2015 and all functions and programmes pertaining to the operational budget are on track. Due to a substantial increase in budget since 2006/2007 for water and sanitation to informal settlements, we have increased our toilet provision from 14 591 to around 46 840 across the city. We have also steadily increased our tap count to around 9 850.

We will continue to work hard, undeterred and with commitment, to ensure that we deliver the best possible services to all of our residents.

Statement issued by Councillor Ernest Sonnenberg, Mayoral Committee Member for Utility Services, City of Cape Town, April 23 2015