Government’s plan to end water cuts in South Africa
The Department of Water and Sanitation says that it is putting in place a Water Services Improvement Programme (WSIP) to ensure support and intervention in water issues at a municipal level.
South Africa has experienced widespread water leaks and shortages with poor maintenance and management, often leading to dry taps.
Responding to a parliamentary Q&A, in light of recent findings by the Auditor General’s latest provincial report that showed municipal service delivery as a primary driver of fiscal decline, the department acknowledged the deterioration of its services.
Senzo Mchunu, the minister of water and sanitation, said the new programme is to ensure that support and intervention at a municipal level are proactive, consistent, and systemic as opposed to the current ad-hoc approach.
He said the decline in functioning water services includes a growing trend of water losses and water use inefficiencies.
Mchunu said that his department had established the Water Partnership Office (WP) within the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). Under the WPO, there are five standardized National Programmes for private sector participation in municipal water and sanitation services.
According to the department, the programmes aim to make it easier, quicker and more affordable for municipalities to enter into partnerships with the private sector without having to ‘reinvent the wheel’ for each partnership.
“One of the five National Programmes within the WPO is Non- Revenue Water (NRW) programme aimed at implementing the Water Conservation and Water Demand Management and cost recovery programme focusing on reducing losses, reducing overconsumption, and improving cost recovery.”
Part of the new programme is being implemented next year.
Many figureheads point to South Africa being in a water crisis. Darrin Green, the managing director for infrastructure firm AECOM in Africa, said water shortages such as the recent one in Gauteng pose a worse crisis than Eskom’s failings and load shedding.
Green said that the country is not sufficiently managing available water supplies and even potential runoff if there is heavy rainfall.
Leaking funds
A recent provincial report by the Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) showed that key areas of service delivery in portfolios such as water and sanitation, transport and public works are having the greatest impact on the lives of everyday South Africans.
The auditor-general Tsakani Maluleke said that deficiencies in financial performance and management might prevent the government from achieving its ideal goals – of which access to clean water and sanitation is one.
She added that key service delivery portfolios such as water and sanitation are responsible for more than 30% of the country’s expenditure budget but consistently have the worst audit outcomes.
Read: Ramaphosa: It’s easy to blame the president for load shedding, but…
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