The Department of Water and Sanitation said on Friday it would cost abut R50 billion to address the backlog of households without an adequate sewage disposal system.

Two grants — the rural household infrastructure grant and the bucket eradication grant – will be used to tackle the countrywide problem‚ the department said in a statement. The provinces with the highest backlogs are the Free State‚ Eastern Cape‚ Limpopo‚ KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Cape.

The department said it would focus on households in formal areas using a bucket toilet and aimed to replace these with waterborne sewerage by December this year. It added that a plan for informal areas was being developed and would be implemented in 2016/17.

In the rural areas the “formalised areas/villages” will be part of the department’s sewerage programme. But the municipalities will continue to be responsible for water and sanitation needs in informal areas.