The free basic water policy of South Africa : an evaluation of its implementation

• Main Author: Farrar, Lauren Judy
• Other Authors: Rivett, Ulrike
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: University of Cape Town 2015
• Subjects: Civil engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13198

Includes bibliographical references. === South Africa is still feeling the effects of the forced inequalities the apartheid system introduced and the resulting wide-spread poverty. Inequalities are particularly evident in the quality of services provided to different areas, which are in the majority still defined by race. The majority of White households have very good service provision, with water piped directly into the home. A great number of Black and Coloured households, by contrast, have very low levels of service where family members have to walk to collect water from communal taps. To this day, there are households in South Africa that do not have access to water infrastructure at all relying on rivers, streams or boreholes, with an increased risk of experiencing water borne diseases. With the end of apartheid and the beginning of democracy in 1994, the new government prioritised the redress of inequalities and sought to better the lives of the poor by providing them with improved services. This meant building or upgrading infrastructure as well as ongoing maintenance; whilst the initial costs were high, it became very quickly apparent that revenue needed to be collected in order to cover costs. Between 2008 and 2009, 26.3% of South Africans were living below the food poverty line of R305 per person, and 52.3% were living below the upper bound poverty line, and this meant that many households were not able to afford the upgraded services. In recognising this challenge the Free Basic Water Policy (FBWP) was established in 2001, which provided a limited “lifeline” supply of water to every household for free, while any additional water usage would have to be paid for. When the FBWP was conceptualised, it was designed to meet certain implementation and supply quality goals and standards. However, over time criticism rose that these goals had not been achieved and that in some cases the policy proved counterproductive. The objective of this dissertation is to examine the implementation of FBWP thus far, and to assess whether or not it is achieving the originally intended goals and standards. Quantitative data was gathered and used to compare the progress of the implementation of the FBWP to the implementation goals in order to assess whether or not the goals are being met. Overall there were six major goals for the implementation of the FBWP, with specific targets and standards pertaining to each goal. For the purpose of this study, the data for each goal was analysed and discussed so that the progress in achieving each goal could be assessed. The findings show that significant progress and improvement has been made in supplying Free Basic Water (FBW]. Although access to water supply and FBW, the level of service provided and the quality of the water have improved, there are still households who are not receiving FBW at the required standards. From the rate of progress made it can be seen that the original intention of providing FBW for all by 2014 was over-optimistic. A second finding was that the FBWP is not financially sustainable at present and that there is currently a lack of asset management and maintenance planning in many municipalities in South Africa, which has resulted in substantial revenue losses. It was also found that the monitoring of the FBWP is currently not sufficient. Aspects such as appropriateness of the allocated amount can only be resolved with improved monitoring mechanisms. The effectiveness of education programmes on water usage requires assessment in order to understand how increased awareness can impact on households’ ability to safe water.