Improved municipal governance will accelerate change

This World Water Day is focused on accelerating change to solve the water and sanitation crisis. Locally, an improvement in municipal governance will help South Africa to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) –Clean water and sanitation for all.

By Lester Goldman, CEO, WISA

Poor municipal governance only promotes inequitable access to water and sanitation. It is the cause of poor service delivery, corruption and mismanagement of resources.

One of the main objectives of the Water Services Act (No. 108 of 1997) is to provide access to basic water supply and basic sanitation. The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) is the custodian of South Africa’s water resources and water services, and is designated as the main regulating body.

However, in terms of delivery, municipalities have service provision as a core function, and it is simply impossible to achieve SDG 6 without functioning municipalities.

While there are certainly pockets of excellence, the poor state of many municipalities is reflected in the dismal results from last year’s Green Drop Report. Of the 850 plants audited nationwide, fewer than 3% (22 wastewater treatment plants) were accredited with Green Drop status.

However, WISA believes that the report will incentivise improved wastewater treatment performance and provide an important means to measure the performance of wastewater treatment plants, thereby providing the DWS and the sector at large with the information needed to plan for and implement improvement.

We believe that the Blue Drop and No Drop results will also be disappointing, but will provide a benchmark for municipalities to improve their performance and start accelerating change.

Good governance is a prerequisite for managing too much, too little and too

polluted water. Good municipal governance can improve water services in South Africa by ensuring that resources are allocated efficiently, services are delivered effectively, and citizens are involved in decision-making processes.

Good news

That improvement requires the collaboration of various stakeholders and WISA continues to form partnerships. WISA will work closer with the South African Local Government Association (Salga) and municipalities, and continues to call on its members to assist wherever possible.

Fortunately, Draft Regulation 813 will be gazetted soon, and this can bring about positive change. Regulation 813 will assist in ensuring that only qualified process controllers work on water and wastewater treatment plants.