Water service delivery in SA could soon be transformed with new legislation
Amendments to the Water Act would mean underperforming municipalities would be forced to step up, or be replaced.
Picture: Pixabay.com
The Money Show's Stephen Grootes gets the details from political and trend analyst JP Landman.
While South Africa is among the world’s 30 driest countries, a large percentage of water is lost through a number of factors such as poor infrastructure maintenance, theft, illegal connections, faulty metering... the list goes on.
And even when dams are full, as some are right now, many citizens still can't rely on their particular municipality to get water into their taps.
But the country might be in for a positive change, says political and trend analyst JP Landman.
He writes on his website that amendments to the Water Services Act, currently before Parliament, will require all water service providers (WSPs) to be licensed, with clear competency and performance conditions, which is not the case at present.
As he tells Stephen Grootes, across South Africa it's municipalities that are our water service providers, with the exception of two locations (in Mbombela in Mpumalanga, and on the Dolphin Coast in KwaZulu-Natal).
The amendments mean that any WSP that fails to meet the proposed conditions will lose their license and the license given to another entity.
"That can be a for-profit private sector organisation, it can be a not-for-profit private sector organisation, a community organisation, an NGO and so on."
JP Landman, Political & Trend Analyst
"What this will do is to hold the municipalities to account... If a municipality, or the water service provider, doesn't perform to standard you take the license away and you give it to somebody else."
JP Landman, Political & Trend Analyst
Landman says Brazil is one of the countries where this system has been implemented with remarkably successful results.
Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interview, and click here to read Landman's detailed article