Many tanks meant to provide emergency water to communities who did not have any for handwashing and basic hygiene could not be installed by municipalities because lockdown regulations prevented hardware stores from opening to provide bricks and cement, Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Lindiwe Sisulu said at a briefing on Wednesday.

She said the department had delivered 17,000 tanks and 1,200 tankers to municipalities to ensure that communities had access to water. Of these, just over 9,000 tanks had been installed.

When President Cyril Ramaphosa declared coronavirus infections in the country a national disaster, one aspect highlighted in his speech was that water would be provided to communities to enable them to practise basic preventative measures such as handwashing.

“We blocked manufacturers from selling tanks until such time that government had purchased enough of them for communities in need of reliable water,” said Sisulu.

“We have had a bit of a problem with the installation of some of the tanks that have been delivered. The tanks themselves have to be mounted. When we rolled out the tanks, we discovered that the restrictions (keeping hardware stores closed) during lockdown prevented us from getting what we needed to mount the tanks.”

Sisulu said the tank had to be mounted on a base, and behind a low brick wall to prevent it from being stolen, to raise it to a level that allowed people collecting water to fit a bucket below the tap.

She said the lockdown regulation that prevented municipalities from accessing bricks and cement had now been lifted.

“Despite the police being out enforcing lockdown regulations, some people are still stealing our tanks. Water is life. Please don’t steal the tanks. We will ask for a maximum sentence if you are caught. You are taking away people’s lives,” Sisulu said.

Some rural areas had been overlooked.

“We have a chart, but please help us find you. Call us on 0800 200 200. Please alert us,” she said.

Sisulu said there was a budget of R306-million. Her department was in talks with Treasury for another R831-million.

She said the provision of access to water included testing of water quality.

With regard to human settlements, Sisulu said that after talks with several NGOs working in the field, the department had decided to rename its strategy to ensure a safer distance between houses from “de-densification” to “re-blocking”.

“From the very beginning, my department realised that this was not practical for informal settlements. We’ve joined up with civil society organisations to resettle residents from extremely dense informal settlements to 27 land parcels we identified and are currently preparing for resettlements.

Sisulu said fast-tracked projects would provide housing to thousands of families countrywide including in the Eastern Cape, residents of Diepsloot in Johannesburg, Ivory Park, the Sjwetla informal settlements in Alexandra and in other densely populated areas including the Helen Joseph Women’s Hostel where residents will also benefit with 144 units. Processes are also under way for informal settlements in Pretoria, Rustenburg and the Western Cape, she said. DM/MC