Many Water Service Authorities struggle to deliver basic level free water

Access to water is a human right in South Africa and provided for in the Constitution S27 1(b). The local government has the primary constitutional obligation to deliver basic services, the national and provincial government also have to play a significant role in supporting municipalities to fulfil these obligations.

This is often most clearly demonstrated in the management of the Water Service Authorities (WSAs). Many WSAs, as reported by the Department of Water Affairs in 2007, struggle to fulfil their most basic service delivery obligations. This is due to vast differences in ability and capacity between weaker municipalities such as those in rural areas and the largely financially self-sustaining municipalities such as metros and secondary cities.

As the water services sector leader, the Department of Water Affairs and Energy (DWAE) has urged for a greater say in determining the municipalities who are tasked with the responsibilities of ensuring the provision of water services so that as the regulator the department is able to take necessary action to regulate the sector. DWAE agrees with the emerging policy consensus that the ‘one size-fits-all’ approach does not work for municipalities in the current local government environment.

Water backlogs

The national assessment in the State of Local Government in South Africa 2009 initiated by by the Ministry for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) includes highlights on water and santitation backlogs per municipality and province.

Country-wide, the highest water backlogs per household, provincially, are found in Limpopo (17.2%), KwaZulu-Natal (16%) and Eastern Cape province (12,8%). These three provinces together constitute 75,5% of the national share of water backlogs.

These three provinces are consistently cited in terms of highest poverty, unemployment, and high service backlogs. Limpopo’s sanitation backlog figure is 47%, that is, nearly half, of all households in the province have no or inadequate sanitation. This is a huge health risk.

An important note in the backlog figures is that eThekwini, a large urban metro has the highest percentage share of the national water backlog at 3,9%, and of sanitation, at 5,2%. These figures are closely followed by City of Johannesburg and by City of Tshwane.

There are 1,069,152 out of 12,996,300 households that are receiving below a basic level of service which constitutes a water backlog. This includes households receiving piped water further than 200m, springs, rain, water tanks, dam/pool/stagnant water and water vendors.

Sanitation backlogs

There are 3,002,152 households out of 12,996,300 that are receiving below a basic level of service which constitutes a sanitation backlog. This includes households using chemical toilets, pit latrine without ventilation, bucket latrine or have no sanitation facility. There are only 36 municipalities country-wide that do not have a sanitation backlog.

Nationally, 600 452 households need to be served with sanitation facilities per year until 2014 to eradicate the existing backlog. This figure does not take into account growth, formation of new households and infrastructure failures that contribute to backlogs.

Six out of ten households i.e. 7,478, 334 households have access to adequate refuse removal service. This includes (i) removal by local authorities/private company at least once a week and, (ii) use of communal skip.