PARLIAMENT -
An additional R4.9 billion will be allocated for housing and municipal services over the next three years, according to the 2011 Budget Review, tabled  by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan on Wednesday

It said building adequate and safe human settlements raised living standards  and created job opportunities.

“Realising this outcome will require speeding up service delivery, eliminating regular patterns of underspending in certain provinces, and improving the efficiency of local government housing processes,” the document said.

Transfers to provincial and local government included earmarked grants for the delivery of housing, water, sanitation and electricity to households, but spending at the national level related mainly to the provision of bulk water infrastructure.

Investment in water services was expected to increase from R9.9 billion in 2011/12, to R10.9 billion in 2013/14, the review said.

In his Budget speech in the National Assembly, Gordhan said a further R3.6 billion was added for water infrastructure and services, “including funding for  the acid water drainage threat associated with abandoned underground mines”.

Of this amount, R1 billion would be allocated for the completion of the De Hoop Dam and bulk distribution pipelines. More than two-million people stood to  benefit from the dam.

Some R952 million would be used for the improvement of regional bulk infrastructure, and R520 million for the completion of the Nandoni pipeline. The pipeline would benefit more than one-million people.

Emergency drought relief efforts in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality would get a boost of R450 million.

About R225 million would be used to address acid mine drainage and its consequences in Gauteng.

“A report on this [acid mine drainage] by a team of experts has been approved by Cabinet and [Water and Environmental Affairs] Minister [Edna] Molewa is taking the lead in consulting with the industry on a shared and co-ordinated response,” said Gordhan.

Government also aimed to upgrade 400,000 homes in informal settlements by 2014.
“A new urban settlements development grant contributes R21.8 billion over the next three years for these projects.”

Nearly 60 percent of all households in informal settlements were in the country’s eight metropolitan municipalities, and the grant would enable cities to take more control of planning and budgeting for the provision of housing and  basic services.

The capital restructuring grant for social housing would receive an additional R972 million to build 6000 affordable rental units, said Gordhan.

Total spending on the housing, water and community amenities social wage would amount to R122 billion in 2011/12, rising to R138 billion in 2013/14.

Gordhan said recent research, published by the Development Policy Research Unit, confirmed that significant progress had been made in the delivery of housing, water, sanitation and electricity.

“The proportion of poor households living in formal dwellings has increased from 47 percent in 1994, to 66 percent now.

“Households with piped water have increased from 28 percent to 53 percent,” he said.
He added that the number of households with electricity had increased from 20 percent to 75 percent.

The number of households with flush or chemical sanitation had increased from 18 percent to 37 percent, he said.