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DAM-L Free water for the poor is feasible/LS (fwd)
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Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2000 10:21:16 -0800
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From: lori@irn.org (Lori Pottinger)
Subject: Free water for the poor is feasible/LS
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Business Day 28/11/00
Free water for the poor is feasible
But success of the project will hinge on management skills'
THE provision of basic water supplies free to the poor is feasible in many
parts of SA.
However, successful implementation of such a policy will hinge on the
management skills of local authorities, says a draft government report.
The report, by the water affairs and forestry department, is the outcome of
a study that covered six areas nationally.
The study followed President Thabo Mbeki's announcement at the Congress of
SA Trade Unions conference in September that government planned to supply
free water to the poor.
Water affairs and forestry department director-general Mike Muller said that
government had been discussing the issue of free water for more than a year.
"The study shows that this is a feasible notion, although there are a few
preconditions," Muller said. Key among these preconditions were local
government's capacity to manage the scheme; the need to properly capitalise
local authorities properly to implement the policy; and the necessary
political will to drive it forward.
"It is not simply about providing services to the poor. It is part of a
process of building our new local government," said Muller.
He said that it was not accurate to describe the proposal as an election
ploy, saying that the free basic water and services pledge was a logical
outcome of a policy framework that had been built up since 1994.
The ministry planned to take the final proposal to cabinet early next month.
The report makes a range of recommendations. The plan is based on the Durban
metropolitan model, where households are not charged for the first 6000
litres of water they use a month. People who use more than this amount each
month will have to pay.
A key aspect of the proposal is the availability of the "equitable share"
for water. This is money which central government provides local government
for the provision of basic services, like clean running water.
The ability of local government to recover costs was vital, particularly in
cases similar to Durban where there was no equitable share for service
provision. In these instances, cost recovery from consumers using higher
levels of water was important if "cross subsidisation is to be implemented
successfully".
In the run-up to implementing the policy, the report recommends that pilot
projects be established in at least four local authority areas with funding
from the departments of water affairs, provincial and local government and
external sources.
It also suggests a technical group, consisting of representatives from the
SA Local Government Association, the departments of finance, water affairs
and provincial and local government, be formed to develop an implementation
strategy.
Local authorities should be given the option of allocating free water to the
poor, or free water to all. Local government is not obligated, in terms of
the constitution, to allocate the equitable share of water costs to the
poor.
The report says the implementation of the free water strategy might require
legislative intervention and amendments to the constitution, although local
governments which failed to implement the strategy would be vulnerable to
Constitutional Court challenges. This could be enough to encourage them to
implement the policy, it says.
Nov 29 2000 12:00:00:000AM Robyn Chalmers Business Day 1st Edition
http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,749754-6099-0,00.html
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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