Question NW4111 to the Minister of Water and Sanitation

Reply:

1. The District Development Model (DDM) promotes intergovernmental relations that enhance collaborative planning and implementation of local government programmes. Section 41(1) of the Constitution requires all spheres of government to cooperate with one another, support one another and foster friendly relations. Furthermore, in terms of section 154(1) of the Constitution, national and provincial governments, must support and strengthen the capacity of municipalities to perform their functions.

The DDM is informed by the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act, 2005 (Act 13 of 2005), which provides for coordinated and integrated alignment of developmental priorities between the three spheres of government. The DDM is integrated district-based approach to addressing service delivery challenges through, among others, localised procurement and job creation that promotes involvement of local communities. It calls for One District, One Plan, and One Budget. Plans are being developed in 52 districts to set out long term strategic framework that will guide the investment and service delivery. The One Plan being developed in each District captures all the necessary challenges, commitments, and resolutions service delivery challenges.

Water service delivery is classified as a functional area of concurrent national and provincial legislative competence in Schedule 4, Part B of the Constitution, 1996. This means that there are dimensions of water services that fall within the realm of both national and provincial governments. Therefore, co-operative governance on these matters is imperative. The DWS is collaborating with relevant national departments and municipalities towards alignment of projects and avoiding duplication which will maximise the resources available to address water services challenges, in line with the DDM. The advent of the DDM has made collaboration to be more effective and efficient as all the departments are being monitored by DDM Champions.

2. The Department has submitted all the key strategic water projects (under implementation and in planning stages) and budgetary allocations as part of the One Plans. These projects are monitored and reported to Steering Committees at each district. At this stage it is not possible to make a determination whether the DDM interventions have been successful or not but collaboration efforts between different role-players are progressing well.

To fast-track the provision of water and sanitation services, the Department provides financial support to municipalities, through conditional grants to develop infrastructure and address infrastructure backlogs. ​Approximately R153 billion has been set aside for the infrastructure investment over the next seven years (2030) as part of the SDG 6 drive to provide water to everyone by 2030. This includes the R105 billion which is aimed at ensuring water security for the country. Approximately 60% of national water resource infrastructure projects are funded by private sector as an initiative of the Department through Public Private Collaboration Agreements. The other additional R47,5 billion is earmarked for Water Services. This includes projects that will improve access to reliability of water supply and ultimately the SDG 6 targets by 2030

Fundamental reforms are required to arrest and turn around the decline in municipal water and sanitation services, including the following:

• The Department will soon issue updated and more comprehensive national norms and standards for water and sanitation services for public comment.
• The DWS will also publish a National Regulatory Dashboard showing compliance with national norms and standards as monitored and reported amongst others by Blue Drop, Green Drop and No Drop Results.
• The DWS has gazetted the Water Services Amendment Bill for public comment. The current Act distinguishes between roles of Water Services Authority (WSA) and Water Services Provider (WSP) in municipalities. The Bill clarifies functions of WSAs and WSPs, including that billing and revenue collection for water is a WSP function.
• The Amendment Bill introduces a compulsory operating license system for WSPs, to be managed by DWS as the national regulator. This will enable WSAs to ensure that WSPs have minimum competency, capability, and performance levels. The Bill will empower the Minister of Water and Sanitation to instruct a WSA to appoint a Water Services Provider that is licensed. The Bill will further provide for Minister to implement regulatory enforcement protocols (non-compliance notices, directives) for water services, and to make gross non-compliance an offence, similarly to the National Water Act.

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