EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES FOR SUSTAINABLE WATER SERVICES
CURRENT OBSTRUCTIONS AND POTENTIAL PATHWAYS AROUND THEM
Keywords:
Current obstructions, Effective strategies, Potential pathways, Sustainable water servicesAbstract
South African efforts to channel increased financial flows to support the provision of sustainable water supply and sanitation services have enjoyed limited success and the quality of service provision is declining. This paper identifies critical obstacles to performance improvement and suggests potential pathways to overcome them. Current obstacles include a failure to balance infrastructure investment with O&M (operations and maintenance) resources or to ring-fence water-related financial flows at municipal level; institutional deficiencies which weaken oversight and limit intervention where systems fail; and inappropriate norms and standards for service provision coupled with unrealistic user expectations, which are often encouraged by weak political leadership. Potential reform interventions that are feasible within current Constitutional arrangements are described and the constraints on their implementation
are outlined, together with strategic suggestions on how these may be overcome. In most cases, substantial policy innovation will be required, backed by institutional reform.
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Copyright (c) 2024 Mike Muller
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