licensing service providers won’t solve the issue

In many cities and towns across South Africa, water shortages and supply disruptions have become more frequent. Most recent figures show that 33% of all urban water users and 65% of rural users face regular water cut-offs. Nearly half of urban residents now boil or treat their water before drinking it.

South Africa’s water law says everyone has the right to access sufficient water. But 12% of rural people have no access to improved water sources.

The most recent Blue Drop report into the state of South Africa’s water supply systems revealed that 46% were unable to guarantee that their water was safe to drink. The people relying on these systems were exposed to the risk of waterborne diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea and dysentery.

The Green Drop report, which evaluates the state of South Africa’s wastewater treatment works, showed that many of these plants were in a critical condition. Nearly two-thirds were at risk of spewing sewage back into the environment and into the rivers that supply people with water.

The No Drop report assesses the state of water that local government can’t charge for. It found that on average, 47% of all clean water was lost through leaking pipes, faulty metering, weak billing and illegal connections.

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To solve these problems, the government wants to amend the Water Services Act. Water services providers – the legal entities responsible for treating and distributing water, managing the staff and equipment of water systems, and collecting payment for water – will need to apply for licences from the national Department of Water and Sanitation. The national government will be able to revoke these if the providers don’t deliver clean, drinkable water.

Municipalities can already choose to appoint external water services providers, but currently most undertake this function themselves. At present, the process of a higher level of government taking over a dysfunctional local provider is long and complicated. Under the new law, the national government will be able to revoke a water services licence, forcing the municipality to appoint another provider, which could include private companies or non-profit organisations.

This will give national government more power to make sure that water services providers are delivering water that’s safe enough to drink. However, the intervention will not be a quick fix.

I am the principal investigator for the South African Water Justice Tracker, a three-year project co-hosted by the University of the Witwatersrand and the South African Human Rights Commission. This project aims to find out what prevents local government from providing people with a clean and sustainable supply of water.

We studied documents related to water delivery from all 144 water services authorities – mostly municipalities. We also engaged with officials from municipal water services authorities across seven provinces.

Our work so far has shown that local government needs reforms to secure a sustainable revenue base, fix broken and leaking water systems, improve water services planning, and address the misuse and sabotage of water infrastructure. Without these reforms, the proposed changes to the water law won’t solve South Africa’s water services problems.

What the amendments to the law will change

All water providers will need a licence to operate. To be granted this licence, they’ll need to show that they have the technical competency to provide water to large numbers of people. They’ll also need to prove that they have financial management capacity to run a water operation, and that they have skilled staff and proper management in place.

The South African National Standard for Drinking Water (SANS 241) sets limits on the levels of microbiological and chemical contamination allowed before water becomes unsafe to drink. Water services providers will have to meet these standards at all times. If they don’t, the Department of Water and Sanitation may revoke their licence.

There are three ways in which licensing water providers could improve the current system:

1. It would force water services providers to be accountable and transparent about the financing of water services. Very few are doing this currently notwithstanding a clear duty in the Water Services Act.

2. It could improve the quality of water. If a water service authority does not deliver clean drinking water, they will be given a chance to improve. If the provider fails persistently, their licence will be revoked. Licences will also be reviewed regularly to ensure progressive improvement in the service.

3. Water services licensing would open the door to water services concessions. Private companies, non-governmental organisations and community-based organisations would be allowed to invest in water systems, maintain and operate water infrastructure and trade in water services. However, this might also lead to increased water tariffs.

What needs to happen next

However, amendments to the law won’t solve South Africa’s water services problems.

First, many municipalities do not have enough money coming in regularly to cover the costs of delivering water. This is because consumers are unable or unwilling to pay for water.

Second, indigent (impoverished) people are entitled to a free basic water supply but the criteria to decide who is indigent differ from municipality to municipality. This needs to be standardised so that the constitutional right to water is realised across South Africa.

Third, because water systems have not been well maintained, heavy users are reluctant to pay tariffs that are high enough to subsidise water costs for those who cannot pay.

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Fourth, South Africa’s aging water systems have caused people and companies to look for alternative water solutions – for example, drilling their own boreholes. This further reduces the amount of income from water to municipalities.

Fifth, formal water services planning cannot keep up with rapid informal urban densification and the mushrooming of informal settlements.

Sixth, various coordination problems need to be resolved between water services providers, the Department of Water and Sanitation (which supplies bulk infrastructure like pipelines), the Department of Human Settlements (which builds houses that need water) and the power utility Eskom (which connects water infrastructure to electricity).

Seventh, the theft, vandalism and sabotage of water infrastructure needs to be addressed, especially in remote rural areas.

Finally, municipalities need to repair water leaks on pipelines, and people need to fix their own leaking toilets so that clean, drinkable water is not wasted.

Water services will only improve if a more systematic set of government reforms takes place.