THE government has set aside R20million to deliver clean water to communities whose supply was cut off by the recent floods.

The money will pay for repairs to flooded water treatment works and collapsed water pipelines, tankers to deliver clean water to villages and new rainwater tanks.

Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa said yesterday that she did not want people to "end up using raw, untreated water from the rivers". She warned that there was a risk that cholera might break out.

Yesterday, Parliament's portfolio committee on cooperative governance and traditional affairs heard that the recent floods had caused R1,5billion worth of damage. Every province, except Western Cape, has been affected. About 8000 homes had been damaged - many washed away - and 70 people lost their lives.

Committee chairperson Solomon Tsenoli said steps should have been taken to prevent loss of life.

The Free State's Gariep and Van der Kloof dams were already at 110percent capacity and posed a flood danger, said Elroy Africa, the department's director-general.

Africa said he was trying to "beef up" the national disaster management centre with more staff. "Unfortunately, we are not winning with the head of the centre," he said.

ANC MP Mwelo Nonkonyana said there were predictions last August of this year's storms.

"One would think forewarned is forearmed. What did the department do to minimise (the damage of the floods)?" he asked.

Other MPs asked what the department was doing to move people in Cape Town's flood-prone informal settlements before June, when floods are set to hit the city.

But the department's manager, Mmaphaka Tau, said one of the problems was that people settled illegally in areas that were normally flooded, and the Prevention of Illegal Evictions Act made it difficult to evict them. Tau said the laws should be changed.