The Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu, has tabled a Bill that will set up a water agency in the country.
The agency will design, plan and finance water resources infrastructure to ensure equitable and quality water supply.
The agency would be involved in the implementation of large-scale projects across the country for the supply of bulk water.
The state of water has come under scrutiny with infrastructure collapsing. The government had said it will invest large amounts of money to fix most of the infrastructure.
Cabinet approved the National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency Bill recently.
The Bill was tabled in parliament on Monday.
In the gazette that was released by Mchunu late last year, he said the agency will be a state-owned entity.
“The agency envisages undertaking the design, planning, financing, development and operation of the national water resource infrastructure.
“The Bill seeks to ensure a sustainable, equitable and reliable supply of water from national water resources infrastructure: while meeting our constitutional obligations set out in sections 10,11, 24,27(1)(b) and 27(2), including the national and regional social and economic objectives of national policy,” said Mchunu at the time.
The bill has been referred to the National Assembly’s portfolio committee on water and sanitation to process it.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Politics