Water and Sanitation Minister Gugile Nkwinti has announced a five-pillar turnaround plan for the troubled Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS).

The strategy includes the establishment of a national water resources and services authority; a national water resources and services regulator; a water resources and services value chain; a water resources and services master plan; and institutional rationalisation and organisational alignment.

Nkwinti has outlined his plans to instill a culture of achieving more with less in the DWS.

To further reduce spending, he announced that, instead of appointing service providers for construction work, the construction unit in the department would be used for infrastructure projects. This is intended to reduce unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

Among the challenges the DWS has been grappling with has been municipalities that receive grants from the department but are not able to spend their allocated funds.

In some instances, they spend irregularly, a phenomenon which has got the DWS in hot water with the office of the auditor-general.

To avert the situation, Nkwinti has taken the initiative to engage the National Treasury and the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs to address the perennial problem of billions of unspent municipal grant funds.

With his resolve to ensure that service delivery is accelerated, Nkwinti has engaged various stakeholders across the country to familiarise himself with their needs.

Nkwinti said raising the wall of the Clanwilliam dam should be prioritised so that the project can start in October.

He added that budgetary constraints should not be seen as a hindrance to the project.

Further, the Minister announced a turnaround plan to prioritise the Nandoni pipeline and 35 Mℓ command reservoir, in Limpopo, in order to increase water sourcing.

Additionally, the DWS will link a new bulk line to the existing village distribution reservoirs and household connections.

Nkwinti said he would kick-start fundraising for the 50 distribution reservoirs and household reticulations, as well as increase the involvement of local people in subcontracting and employment.