The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has delivered nearly 17 000 water storage tanks and over 1 200 water tankers across South Africa in an effort to ensure human settlements and rural areas have enough water to ride out the current Covid-19 pandemic.
This forms part of the department’s interventions to enhance water infrastructure, water supply and sanitation in the areas that require it the most.
The first stretch of the intervention had a budget of R306-million, with the department in talks with National Treasury for a further R831-million to continue the intervention, said Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu.
A Water Command Centre was established at Rand Water to review daily the progress made, including how many tanks and tankers have been delivered and where they have been installed or, in the case of tankers, where they operate.
This includes the testing of water quality to ensure that the water delivered is of the requisite quality.
“We have had to look at new ways of providing services and do so quickly,” she said during a briefing on government’s response to Covid-19 on April 29, noting that the numbers change on a daily basis as delivery continues.
Further, the DWS has blocked manufacturers from selling tanks, until such time that government has purchased enough of them for communities in need of reliable water.
Any communities and municipalities that are still struggling with water are urged to inform the Water Command Centre on 0800 200 200.
“This is the only way that we get made aware of our communities in need,” she said.