BuaNews (Tshwane)
Chris Khumalo
23 October 2007
Vryheid — The KwaZulu-Natal government has reported that only 100 bucket system toilets are left in the province's settlements, as the national target of eradicating the bucket system looms in December.
Presenting his mid-term report to the KwaZulu-Natal legislature sitting in Abaqulusi municipality in Vryheid on Monday, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sbu Ndebele said his provincial government aimed to eliminate the remaining 100 bucket toilets by the end of the year.
In 2003 the province had more than 13 000 households were using the bucket sanitation system, but "we have progressively reduced the bucket system to 3 226 in 2004, and 100 in 2007."
Addressing the hundreds of residents who had came to witness the sitting in their area, Mr Ndebele said the provincial government has allocated R7.6 billion for housing, road construction, agriculture, land reform and restitution, tourism, and corridor development projects in the province.
This will be spent in the current financial year.
The sitting in the Abaqulusi municipality forms part of the legislature's Imbizo programme, dubbed "Taking Parliament to the People".
The programme seeks to create interaction between various communities in the province with their legislators.
The premier said government also had water and sanitation programmes at clinics aimed at providing water and sanitation to the remaining 65 clinics by December 2007.
He said there were 2.2 million households in KwaZulu-Natal and 1 740 786 of which had water.
"During the first six months of this financial year, 45 440 households were served. In 2005, 1 128 496 consumers received free basic water services compared to 938 634 in 2004.
"Twenty water purification plants are being installed to provide water to remote rural areas. Out of 10 199 345 of people in KwaZulu-Natal, 2 673 069 are without access to clean water," he said.
Mr Ndebele said was it estimated that R3.2 billion was needed in this province to eradicate water and sanitation backlogs.
Processes, he said, were underway to enlist assistance from national government to secure additional funds for the backlogs generated through our historical imbalances.
"In KwaZulu-Natal 1 218 612 households were supplied with sanitation services.
"During the first six months of this financial year 20 504 households were served. The provincial backlog stands at 1 032 884 households, 433 452 households were targeted in 2004 -2005," he said.
Mr Ndebele said the total number of households supplied with electricity is 1 534 125.
"During the first six months of this financial year 12 900 households were served. The provincial backlog stands at 724 975 households. In 2005, 139 718 consumers received free electricity services compared to 2004, where 35 533 received free electricity service," he said.
He said that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per region of the province has risen five-fold from one percent in 1999 to 5.3 percent in 2005, and is now the second largest in the country.
Following this trend, Premier Ndebele said the provincial economy is likely to reach a 10 percent growth rate by the year 2014, which is far above the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (ASGISA) target of 6 percent.
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