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Appearing before parliament's water and environmental affairs committee to explain the state of the country's wastewater systems - which the recent Green Drop Report confirmed is in dire straits - the department noted municipal budgeting is one of the weakest links in the wastewater management chain.
Deputy Minister of Finance Nhlanhla Nene earlier confirmed a complete review of the municipal budgeting systems is under way, but did not give details of what this would entail.
The recent assessment of the country's 852 wastewater plants highlighted why municipalities are being fingered for their budgeting.
The Green Drop Report disclosed that only 7% of the 449 treatment plants assessed were "excellently" managed. These included Mbombela municipality, Ethekwini Metro, City of Tshwane, City of Cape Town, City of Johannesburg and the George municipality.
There were 403 municipalities - for instance Somerset East - with such poor wastewater management systems that they could not be assessed. Only 38% of the municipalities that were assessed performed within "acceptable" standards and 55% give cause for "concern", scoring below 50%.
While MPs wanted to know what the department was doing about turning wastewater plants around, acting Director-General of Water Affairs Nobubele Ngele was forthright about the fact that money was a critical limitation.
The national department, she said, was not allocated enough to step in and do refurbishment and maintenance for municipalities. Municipalities themselves were also pleading poverty. Although the department of water affairs has started to hold municipal managers criminally liable for sub-standard wastewater systems, this has proved to be a fruitless exercise in cases where municipal officials use empty coffers and a lack of skills to justify inaction.
However, Ngele said before more funds are allocated, government needs to look at how existing resources are being spent.
"They [municipalities] are supposed through equitable share to make provision for this [maintenance]," said Ngele, adding many municipalities use money as they see fit without sticking to predetermined budgets.
Nene said steps to "improve the quality of local government budgets" are at an advanced stage. "This will greatly facilitate transparency and understanding of municipal budgets by councils, communities and other stakeholders and thus enhance oversight," he said.
- Fin24.com
