Good news for marginalised WSAs

Due to strong political leadership, there is traction in the water and sanitation sector where studies and position papers from many years ago are now being implemented. One such example is the transformation of the regional water utility space. By

Dan Naidoo, chairman, WISA

This reconfiguration of water boards will give additional support to the undercapacitated water services authorities (WSAs) to meet the rapidly increasing demand for services by communities and ensure adequate capacity with quality and skilled support from the new regional water utilities.

Umgeni Water and Mhlathuze Water are merging to form uMngeni-uThukela Water. The scope of Rand Water will be extended to cover the entire Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces. Lepelle Northern Water board’s boundary is also being extended to service the entire Limpopo province. Magalies Water’s scope expands to service the entire North West province, taking over from Sedibeng Water, which was disestablished last year. Bloem Water will service the whole Free State and the Northern Cape as part of the reconfiguration. In the Eastern Cape, Amatola Water’s scope has been extended to cover the entire province.

These plans have been part of the National Water Resource Strategies (NWRS) 2 and 3 that is focused on stabilising water security for the future in South Africa and will allow municipalities to focus on reticulation and improved water distribution.

There are also other positive developments. Rand Water shut down some of its water supply for 58 hours to repair and maintain some of its ageing infrastructure. Even though Johannesburg residents have been inconvenienced, this is an example of a capable organisation not defaulting to short-term fixes, but trying to permanently resolve an issue for the long term. This shutdown has stabilised a part of the water value chain.

Supporting WSAs

National government has had to increasingly intervene in local government issues; the recent cholera outbreak is an example. Water and sanitation have been brought to the forefront and this has necessitated a focused institutional realignment process to managing current and emerging risks. There is now an added approach to the regional positioning of these services.

There may be a few alignment issues, but the bigger picture impact will be realised in a few years’ time where marginalised municipalities will receive better support due to the economies of scale of larger water boards. This will go a long way towards achieving SDG 6.

As Minister Senzo Mchunu says: “Larger water boards have the capacity to sustain themselves with financial muscle, where they can raise money to render services on their own. The reality is that the expenditure to implement projects is too high, the demand of services is also too high; however, the delivery by government institutions is too low and we need to fix this as a matter of urgency.”