Infrastructure

1. The Department provides guidance on strategic planning and packaging of interventions   working with municipalities to ensure that sanitation services meet the minimum norms and standards as outlined in national guidelines. Informal settlements service levels vary significantly depending on their location, size, and bulk infrastructure access of each settlement. According to the latest available data from Statistics South Africa, the Western Cape consistently reports the highest levels of basic service delivery, including access to sanitation, cross the provinces.
2. The cleaning and the maintenance of sanitation facilities in informal settlements are managed primarily by local municipalities, with support from the Department. Municipalities are encouraged to adopt various approaches to ensure regular upkeep, including:

• Community-led janitorial services, which promote local ownership and employment.
• Utilisation of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) to provide temporary work opportunities for residents tasked with maintaining sanitation infrastructure.

The frequency of cleaning varies by municipality and is influenced by available resources, settlement size, and service delivery agreements. 

3. In the 2023/24 financial year, the Department allocated a total of R335,041,000 under the Informal Settlement Upgrading Programme. This funding was directed toward supporting municipalities in the upgrading of informal settlements, which included enhancing access to basic services and sanitation infrastructure, such as formal toilets, ablution blocks and portable flush toilets as indicated on (a) above, numbers vary depending upon locality, size and bulk infrastructure availability.