Water and sanitation services are essential basic services that communities must have reliable and sustainable access to, however, such provision must also conform to acceptable national standards. Over the years, municipalities have been grappling to provide clean water and dignified sanitation to communities because of a lack of data-driven water services management processes, use of manual mechanisms to conserve and supply water, aging infrastructure, inadequate project management and lack of skills amongst others. South African municipalities are Constitutionally mandated with the responsibility of providing basic services to communities. This responsibility is enshrined in Sections 24 and 27 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.
There are 144 Water Services Authorities (municipalities) in South Africa, comprising a network of 958 Water Supply Systems (WSS). The Free State Province accounts for 80 WSSs supplying a population of 3 028 741. According to the Department of Water and Sanitation, the state of wastewater services in Free State are in a critical state and require remedial action. Furthermore, the Green Drop Report (2023) depicts that 64 WWTWs in the province achieved a score of below 31%. Blue Drop (2023) Free State WSSs performance is depicted as follows:Capacity Management (53.3%), Risk Management (37.6%), Financial Management (49.3%), Technical Management (28.1%) and Water Quality Compliance (39.5%). The above scores show a total score of 41.56% on the five area of water supply performance, with a worrying outcome on technical management, risk management and water quality compliance. What this means for municipalities is that there is a requirement to bring about alternative solutions to improve the status quo and provide clean, usable, good quality water to communities.
The 2022 Census data provides a mixed picture of access and quality of service. FS has done well as it has the third highest levels of access to water (3% has no access to piped water), with 58% of households reporting interruptions (ranked number 5 of 9). The FS has made steady progress in the provision of sanitation, with 76.3% of households having flush toilets (third best), however the FS has the second highest bucket toilet use in the country (3.5% of households). This is extremely concerning as government has declared bucket toilets as unacceptable and undermining the dignity of people. The panel discussion is underpinned by the need to entrench alternative solutions for providing reliable, sustainable, and good quality water, complemented by dignified and safe sanitation to all communities. The panel seeks to firstly understand why status quo persists and then consider context appropriate innovative alternatives that can improve the state of municipal water and sanitation services in the Free State. The discussion will be broad leveraging on the experience, exposure, and expertise of the panel members.
Panel Discussion Questions:
1. Setting the scene (question to each panelist): Are municipalities unwilling or unable (or its both) to provide sustainable and reliable water and sanitation services? and why do you hold this view?
2. Water and sanitation are trading services meaning they ought to be financially sustainable. What is the situation in the FS (across the value chain) and how might we improve status quo? What do we do differently?
3. Besides the IGS' advanced work in groundwater research, what sustainable alternative solutions can you advise Water Service Authorities to implement in the quest to provide firstly access to ground water and secondly to clean usable water?
4. Since IGS is an ISO accredited institution, what services can you provide to Water Services Authorities in the Free State Province?
5. Following on the financial sustainability, municipalities claim low revenue collection rates are undermining their ability to provide services and there is an inherent culture of unwillingness to pay. Communities claim they can’t pay for poor and intermittent services how do we solve this chicken and egg situation?
6. As the regulator you have a unique perspective. What are your reflections on FS WSA performance on the Drop Programmes and what are you doing to create an enabling environment (with incentives and disincentives) to improve compliance (effectively quality and sustainability of services)?
7. The WRC, CSIR, DTI etc are all doing good work to solve challenges we face in the sector. Give us some highlights of potential alternative service delivery solutions we could focus on and a reflection on why up-take is not where it ought to be on these solutions, especially in FS and how can we change this?
8. Closing round: Each panelist to share one thing they think we could do to improve the quality of water and sanitation services in the FS through alternative service delivery and sustainable societal responsiveness.
