Human Settlements

4.(a-c) My department has never had a programme for bucket eradication

but did undertake a programme for the improvement of Access to Basic Services in informal settlements across the province between 2012 and 2014. The purpose of the programme was to achieve a basic (RDP) level of access to water and sanitation services (at least one toilet per 5 families and 1 water point to each 25 families) in all informal areas. This programme was concluded on 31 March 2015.

Sanitation has always been a responsibility of local authorities. A programme for the eradication of buckets in all formal areas in the country had previously been implemented by the then Department of Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs and a large number of buckets were eradicated nationally and also in the Western Cape but that was prior to 2007.

During 2014, after the Sanitation function had been moved nationally from the Department of Water Affairs to the Department of Human Settlements, the National Department of Human Settlements appointed the Housing Development Agency (HDA) to implement the Bucket Eradication Programme in the Western Cape. Before the implementation of the programme could commence, the new Department of Water and Sanitation was established nationally and the sanitation function was incorporated into the responsibilities of this department and no longer resided with Human Settlements. The Bucket Eradication Programme for the Western Cape was therefore never implemented by the HDA.  

In the Western Cape, the majority of remaining buckets are in informal areas and are managed by the municipalities. It has been realised that the upgrading of sanitation cannot be done in isolation and has to form part of the process of the upgrading of informal settlements in its entirety. The upgrading of informal settlements has been prioritised in this province and it includes the improvement of the sanitation options available to informal settlement dwellers.