Funds for drought relief set to flow
Declaration of national disaster frees up Treasury cash
SUBSTANTIAL funding should be flowing into the droughtstricken Eastern Cape after Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Zweli Mkhize yesterday declared the drought a national disaster. Mkhize made the declaration in Cape Town, and confirmed that it was gazetted yesterday morning.
Although the national government reclassified the water crisis as a national disaster on February 8, the declaration is an important step forward.
It allows affected provincial and local authorities to finally access through Treasury special funds reserved for national disasters.
Responding to the news, Eastern Cape Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs spokesman Mamnkeli Ngam said the province had submitted a drought disaster application of more than R7.7-billion to the national government after the February reclassification, together with a plan of how the money would be spent.
The submission was based on an assessment of the situation in droughtstricken municipalities across the province and was made on their behalf.
“The national government responded saying they were only allocating for immediate drought disaster relief, so the long-term projects would have to be removed and the figure reduced.
“We are awaiting receipt of the final amount decided.”
The funds received would be allocated to the municipalities worst hit by the drought, including Nelson Mandela Bay, Kouga, Koukamma, Sarah Baartman, Joe Gqabi, Chris Hani, Alfred Nzo and Amathole, he said.
In a related process, Bay councillor Masixole Zinto, mayoral committee member for infrastructure and engineering, said the metro requested drought funding support of R7.1-billion from national government in July last year.
The National Disaster Management Centre visited the metro in September to interrogate the plan and the long-term projects were then removed, reducing the amount needed to R2.2-billion.
“This funding will be used to drive the drought relief campaign via all media platforms as well as for maximisation of water supply and temporary treatment of water at Nooitgedacht.
“It will be used for water conservation and demand management, which includes leak repairs and pressure management, and for improvements to the older dams and pipelines.
“It will also be used to access dead storage in the Churchill and Impofu dams and, finally, for desalination projects.”
The DA’s shadow minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, Kevin Mileham, welcomed Mkhize’s declaration yesterday but said the ANC’s internal problems had long delayed the release of funding.
“Now . . . the special disaster funds must be released urgently and the national government must support efforts to mitigate the water crisis, especially in the hardest-hit provinces such as the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape,” Mileham said.