South Africa: Alignment of Support to Struggling Water Service Authority Necessary, but Impact Minimal

The Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation welcomes the apparent collaboration between the Department of Water and Sanitation and the Department of Cooperative Governance in providing support to struggling municipalities but raised concerns that the tangible impact is negligible. The alignment of interventions was a resolution made at the Water Indaba.

The committee today held an interaction with both departments and the South African Local Government Association on municipal support initiatives. “While the alignment of efforts and standards is critical to effectively drive implementation, solutions should be systematic and overarching. The continued channelling of resources without a complete systematic overhaul and strengthening of municipalities to deliver services will be futile,” said Mr Leon Basson, the Chairperson of the committee. The committee remains of the view that interventions remain piecemeal and do not address the root causes of the challenges faced by water services authorities.

The reality is that South African municipalities are not well capacitated to manage and implement water and sanitation infrastructure projects. While the committee welcomed the intention to convert direct grants to indirect grants aimed at improving spending and delivery of projects, the overarching challenge of the lack of capacity and governance challenges at the local government level make the interventions superficial, especially in the context that these municipalities will have to operate and maintain the infrastructure in the long run.

The committee has also called for the sharing of good practice between municipalities and avoiding a silo mentality, guided by the desire to ensure quality service delivery. “It is concerning that 105 municipalities out of 144 water services authorities (WSAs), amounting to 73% of all WSAs, are underperforming in the delivery of their mandates. This has a direct socio-economic impact and undermines the drive for inclusive economic growth and improving access to quality water,” Mr Basson emphasised.

While the committee welcomed the information that the department will soon table the Water Services Amendment Bill and the National Water Bill in Parliament following the approval granted by Cabinet, it also highlighted that while the legislation might assist in providing a legal framework, the need to strengthen water service authorities remains urgent.

The lack of planning and consequences within municipalities is also a point of serious concern for the committee. “What the blue drop and green drop reports have highlighted is the lack of planning at the municipal level and subsequent consequence management in implementing corrective measurement plans in response to the reports,” Mr Basson said.

The committee has emphasised the need for comprehensive implementation of all resolutions made at the Water Indaba to ensure a wide-ranging intervention on the water value chain. “While this alignment is a start, the full and comprehensive implementation of all recommendations might have the necessary ripple effect to resolve challenges within the system,” Mr Basson noted.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Republic of South Africa: The Parliament.