Hon Speaker, the question was about school infrastructure. Our response is that, addressing school infrastructure is a continuous process that we have as a sector. [Inaudible]... we had to COVID-19, the different provincial education departments are currently implementing more than 2000 projects to focus on addressing water and sanitation challenges. These projects are mainly funded from provincial education infrastructure grants.
The national department with the same programme also has a programme to eradicate infrastructure backlog through Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative, ASIDI. In this regard, we have almost 854 sanitation projects underway which have reached practical completion and currently we have 991 projects which are also almost complete and are meant to provide water.
The national department is also assisting in eradicating pit latrines at schools through the same programme. In this regard contractors that have been appointed are on the ground to implement 1076 projects. In liaison with provinces, the department has identified an additional number of 3500 schools with critical water challenges. In compliance with the procurement processes under the state of disaster, we have entered into an implementation protocol with the Department of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation and Rand Water. Under this initiative, water is being delivered at different schools to address shortages in these 3500 schools. Thank you very much Speaker.