Human Settlements
With regard to the co-funding for municipalities to allow them to access the Rural Bulk Infrastructure Grant:
(1) Whether his Department has identified municipalities to receive funding; if so, what are the relevant details;
(2) (a) what is the application process that municipalities will need to follow in order to access this funding and (b) what are the criteria for municipalities to receive assistance from the Department?
(1) The Department has perused the DORA framework and confirms that there is no evidence of the existence of a “Rural Bulk Infrastructure Grant”. Therefore, the remainder of the response is based on the assumption that the question is referring to the ‘Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant’ (RBIG) administered by the National Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS).
As per the allocation letter from the DWS, the following municipalities are earmarked to receive the RBIG funding in the Western Cape:
(2)(a) The Department of Water and Sanitation accepts project applications directly from municipalities. The project would need to be on the municipality’s Water Services Development Plan before applications can be considered. A feasibility study must be conducted which will also reflect project readiness for implementation, and which will investigate the following:
Capacity of the municipality to implement the project.
- EIA if needed.
- Confirmation of the co-funding from the municipality.
- Water use license if needed.
- Total project cost.
- Operation and maintenance plan of the project.
- Human Resource plan to manage the infrastructure after completion.
Once approved for construction, the provincial DWS office budgets for the project, so that the municipality could then implement.
(b) As contained in the RBIG DORA Framework:
- All identified projects should be referenced and included in the municipal Integrated Development Plan (IDP) and Water Services Development Plans (WSDP) and should demonstrate linkages to projects under the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) and/or the Water Services Infrastructure Grant (WSIG).
- Funds may only be used based on a Business Plan approved by DWS.
- In addition, should the RBIG be considered as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic:
- DWS may approve that a portion of the allocation to a municipality be used to fund the purchase and installation of water tanks and the trucking of water to refill the water tanks for a period of up to 3 months.
- Funds may also be used to implement source development or bulk linkage projects to replace the need for water trucking.
- Municipalities must submit a separate Business Plan for this expenditure.
