Buckets project gets bogged down

WHEN Ben Fihla took over as mayor last year, he vowed to make the eradication of the 23000 bucket toilets in Nelson Mandela Bay a priority project.

However, seven months into the 2013-14 financial year, the municipality has not spent a cent of its R9-million budget to build flush toilets.

This is according to the metro's mid-term budget and performance assessment report.

When the city's annual budget was passed by council in June last year, councillors hailed the massive increase in the budget allocation for the eradication of the bucket sewer system, from R500000 to R9-million.