The Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation will on Tuesday, 21 April 2020, hold a virtual meeting with the Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation to receive a briefing on the impact and initiatives undertaken by both departments in providing water and sanitation to citizens as well as the initiatives undertaken on scaling down densification during COVID-19 period.

The Chairperson of the Committee, Ms Machwene Semenya said, following the announcement of the resumption of the business of Parliament by Parliament’s Presiding Officers recently, the committee saw it necessary to hold a virtual meeting to get an update from both departments on progress made in ensuring access to water by the people of South Africa.
 
“Maintaining a level of hygiene requires access to water and we have noted commendable roll-out of water tanks to communities that were without water. Similarly, we have noted some communities that have complained about lack of water. This meeting will ensure that we get progress on the measures of intervention that are already implemented,” Ms Semenya said.
 
Some of the issues to be discussed include; the impact of the COVID-19 virus on communities without access to continuous supply of piped, potable water and initiatives undertaken by the Department of Water and Sanitation to address this as well as expenditure on water and sanitation and de-densification on COVID-19 initiatives, and the extent to which this would impact on the set targets that are already in place within programmes and sub-programmes outlined in the 2020/21 Annual Performance Plans of both departments.