(AsgiSA) Annual Report 2008 - South African Government Information

Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa
ANNUAL REPORT
2008
The next MTEF phase will require water and sanitation services to be delivered as part of a more coordinated
and integrated effort around the built environment, particularly targeting the informal settlement
process.
Over the MTEF period, water and sanitation service provision in informal settlements will become intertwined
and integrated with the national housing programme, with the objective of providing a basic
water supply and functioning basic sanitation by 2014. Informal settlement bucket systems (largely
eradicated in formal settlements) will be addressed through the housing process.
Notwithstanding the significant gains made, the policy approach of targeting infrastructure “backlogs”
is changing, given that the backlogs are a moving target, particularly in view of rapid urbanisation and
decreasing average size of family units. Water policy-makers are increasingly focusing on the sustainability
and efficiency of new water and sanitation infrastructure addition and the capacity to sustain the
operation and maintenance of such infrastructure. This particularly applies to the state of wastewater
treatment plants, a municipal competence, where a 2006 DWAF-commissioned study found that 35%
of surveyed plants needed urgent capital upgrades, 56% of plants were adequately maintained, an
absence of important data and information at 66% of all plants, and only 5% complying to licence
requirements 5 . The DBSA (2008) also observed that there had been a general “overinvestment” in
water-service provision and an underinvestment in treatment plants 6 .
5.2.3 Housing
Since 1994, some 2,7 million housing opportunities have been created through the national housing
subsidy, which has absorbed over R49 billion. Despite this, rapid urbanisation has led to growing informal
settlements in which an estimated 1,8 million families live 7 . The policy objective of eradicating
informal settlements by 2014 is to be achieved through a number of initiatives, including:
• Increased budget for the Integrated Housing and Human Settlement Development (IHHSD) Grant, rising
from R12 billion in 2009/10 to R17 billion in 2011/12. The grant is allocated by the Department
of Housing to provincial housing departments responsible for housing project delivery.
• Improve the co-ordination and integration between provinces (which administer the housing grant)
and municipalities (which provide bulk infrastructure). This issue has led to calls for the accreditation
of capable municipalities to carry out the housing function and to channel the IHHSD Grant directly to
those municipalities that have the capacity to effectively administer such grants 8 .
• The creation of a dedicated institution (Housing Development Agency) to acquire, develop and release
state, communal and privately owned land for residential use.
It should be noted that house construction is an activity, which has significant backward economic
multiplier linkages and, depending on the construction method choice, offers the potential to achieve
poverty reduction through more labour-intensive methods.
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Transnet (2009), Transnet presses ahead with Capex amid global downturn, Press Release, 18 February 2009.