Human Settlements
With regard to the first confirmed cases of the Covid-19 virus in poor communities, such as Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain:
Whether any measures have been taken to (a) reduce the population, especially informal settlements, by relocating people to other areas and (b) improve access to water and decent sanitation; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
(a) An assessment was conducted on all available land parcels owned by my department as well as sister departments, Housing Development Agency (HDA) as well as land belonging to the City of Cape Town which were located in close proximity to the identified high-risk informal settlements that could potentially be utilised as re-blocking areas.
The assessment recommended the following:
- Prioritisation of large and consolidated land parcels that could accommodate great numbers of households and possibly be a receptor for households from multiple informal settlements in the area;
- Limit the amount of re-blocking areas created to enable suitable and viable management measures to be put in place;
- Prioritisation of land parcels that already form part of existing Human Settlement projects; and
- Relocation of beneficiaries to the identified land parcels should prioritise the elderly and most vulnerable and should not occur in a haphazard manner.
The identified land parcels suitable for relocation was then matched with the most high-risk informal settlements to provide a roadmap for the implementation of a re-blocking strategy. In terms of progress, all Service Providers have been appointed and the Professional Teams have been briefed with regard to the first phase of re-blocking.
(b)A Work Streams which formed part of the Department's Covid-19 Task Team, focused its attention on supporting Municipalities with the provision of basic services to informal settlements which had shortfalls.
As a result, my department officially requested that all local Municipalities indicate those informal settlements that had a shortfall in the number of basic services, including standpipes and sanitation facilities, according to the National Upgrading Support minimum standards. Municipalities also had to indicate areas where additional water storage tanks could be positioned (by providing X and Y coordinates), as well as indicate the water source to be utilised to fill and replenish these additional water tanks.
My department’s Regional Planners collated the information provided by Municipalities, which was then consolidated by the Department of Water & Sanitation (DWS), who based their original distribution of water tanks on Municipalities that previously required drought relief. The DWS also consulted with the City through the Task Team Stream established by my department in order to obtain information (similar to information requested from Non-metro Municipalities) about informal settlements that had a shortfall in water stand pipes in the Metro.
The DWS has appointed a Service Provider, Overberg Water Board, to deliver and install all new water tanks to the identified informal areas.
