The City of Cape Town plans to spend R503.7 million on direct water and sanitation services to informal settlements in the upcoming 2015/16 financial year.

According to a statement by the municipality this money will be spent on increasing the toilet and tap provisions, maintenance of sanitation and water facilities, cleaning and emptying of alternative sanitation, the janitorial programme, provision of water to informal settlements, which is unlimited and free and the removal of waste water for full flush toilets.

The municipality says this proposed direct budget does not include the bulk water, reticulation and wastewater infrastructure necessary to deliver the water to informal settlements or the removal of wastewater and the treatment thereafter.

“For example, the Zandvliet Wastewater Treatment Works almost exclusively services Khayelitsha, Delft and Blue Downs, which all host a substantial number of informal settlements with full flush toilets.

“Simply put, the R503.7 million only includes primary costs to informal settlements, and not secondary costs. Thus, it does not include support services charges and enhancements, repairs or new bulk infrastructure that services informal settlements,” says Ernest Sonnenberg, Mayoral Committee Member for Utility Services.

Sonnenberg adds that this proposed budget is a display of the City’s ongoing commitment to its residents in informal settlements.

“In the current year, we have a budget of R499 million for water and sanitation directly to informal settlements. Of this, we had spent 90% of our capital budget by the end of March 2015 and all functions and programmes pertaining to the operational budget are on track,” he notes.

Due to a substantial increase in budget since 2006/2007 for water and sanitation to informal settlements, the department says it has increased its toilet provision from 14 591 to around 46 840 across the city. It has also steadily increased the tap count to around 9 850.