At least many got a drop

If the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (Dwaf) were a person, I'd pat her on the back. I have walked a few miles in Dwaf's moccasins since South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, and believe me I have good reasons to applaud them.

Dwaf's main function is to ensure that the objectives of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) are met. To ensure that this does happen, the directorate of community water supply and sanitation was established in 1994 to promote water supply and sanitation provision. By 1994 the White Paper on Water Supply and Sanitation estimated that about 12 million people did not have access to adequate supply of portable water, and nearly 21 million lacked basic sanitation.

Today the picture is different. As Bethuel Netshiswinzhe, the policy director of The Mvula Trust, puts it, “about six million rural people have been provided with clean water and improved sanitation in the last six years”. Further reflecting on Dwaf's policy, Bethuel believes that this has been the most challenging task, and it did not go without problems. He argues that many of these problems were largely because of poor application of the policies by officials.

The department's community water supply and sanitation directorate established the community development section, in which I was involved as a community development officer. Our main function was to ensure community participation in development. At this time, this approach was unusual.

The White Paper on Water Supply and Sanitation of 1994 was the first in a number of policies the department produced in subsequent months. These policies created more challenges for us. The noticeable challenge in this regard was policy on basic service provision that defines the basic water supply as 25 liters per person per day, and a maximum walking distance of 200 meters. This level of service was not appropriate to ensure effective cost recovery. As Bethuel argues, “to date we can say the sector has failed to explore ways and means of providing a mixed level of service for some people who can afford it.”

He believes that the sector has still to find ways to narrow the gaps that exist between policy and practice.

The department works in partnership with non-governmental organisations (NGO) like The Mvula Trust, which is a national organisation. It is known as the largest implementing agent in rural water and sanitation services. The Mvula Trust has made considerable strides in ensuring that Dwaf's mission is realised.

Recently, Dwaf introduced the free basic water policy. Many people within and outside the sector felt that this was crazy and undoable. However Martin Rall of Mvula Trust believes that South Africa is rich enough to implement this. He said that other medium income countries like South Africa have been able to do it. Whilst admitting that this is a complex issue, he argues that it can be implemented sooner in cities than in rural areas.

According to The Mvula Trust, the challenge now is to develop new strategies and support mechanisms to enable local government to implement this policy. Mvula Trust has already engaged local municipalities to answer questions ranging from financing the free basic water, development of institutional arrangements , to the choice of technical and service level options.

By and large, policy review processes are taking place in the department and in The Mvula Trust. It is a matter of time before local authorities will be in a position to take over the management of water service provision, and the department may concentrate on a more regulatory process. It is the aim and a legal requirement to ensure that local municipalities take charge of service provision.

Moses Makhweyane, June 2001